Crack down on unlawful resorts in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, Madras High Court tells T.N. govt. officers

The Madras High Court on Thursday (October 9, 2025) ordered applicable motion in opposition to all unlawful resorts and vacationer lodges functioning throughout the prohibited zone of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) in Erode district and known as for an action-taken report from the district administration in addition to Forest Department officers inside 4 weeks.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan handed the orders on a public curiosity litigation (PIL) petition filed by R. Karpagam, 57, an environmental activist from Coimbatore. The petitioner had claimed that 47 resorts and vacationer lodges had been functioning illegally in STR.

Her counsel SP. Chockalingam advised the courtroom that the 47 resorts and vacationer lodges listed out by his shopper had been unlawful for 2 causes: firstly, they didn’t have statutory approval from the National Board of Wildlife (NBW) although such approval was obligatory below Section 33 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.

Secondly, these resorts and vacationer lodges didn’t have the requisite clearance from the Tamil Nadu Hills Area Conservation Authority (HACA), he mentioned, and claimed to have collected particulars relating to the alleged illegality, by the 47 resorts and personal lodges, below the Right to Information Act of 2005.

The petitioner, in her affidavit, had mentioned that the unlawful resorts had created elevated anthropogenic stress on the forests, in addition to inflicting a large amount of stress to the wildlife.

“For the forests and hills to outlive, the unlawful resorts ought to be eliminated. The tacit assist from authorities are the rationale for the mushrooming of unlawful resorts day-to-day. If this illegality just isn’t curbed, we might lose our pristine forests and wonderous wildlife within the close to future,” the affidavit learn.

The litigant had included the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the NBW, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests-cum-Chief Wildlife Warden, the Field Director of STR, the HACA, Erode Collector, and the personal resorts in addition to personal lodges as respondents to the PIL petition.

State Government Pleader A. Edwin Prabakar advised the courtroom the Collector had already denotified some huts functioning as unlawful resorts and issued notices to them.