Udhagamandalam: Tribal members who are holding office in grama panchayats welcomed the appointment of conservationist Nandita Hazarika by the Supreme Court as a new member of the Sigur elephant corridor inquiry committee in the place of Ajay Desai, who passed away last November.
Tribal members had written to Justice K Venkatraman, chairman of the three-member committee, to remove Desai and Praveen Bhargava. Hazarika is a biologist from Assam.
Based on the 32 appeals upholding the direction of the Madras high court in 2011, the SC, on October 14, 2020, directed the Tamil Nadu government to notify the Sigur elephant corridor in the Nilgiris district. The apex court also appointed a three-member committee headed by Venkatraman to hear the complaints of resort owners against the action taken by the Nilgiris collector and other allied issues.