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Synopsis

The Madras High Court recently passed an order mandating e-pass for vehicles entering the Nilgiris region. The decision aims to safeguard the Nilgiris biosphere and the Western Ghats, prompted by a report revealing a concerning influx of 20,011 vehicles daily during peak seasons.

The bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy said, "We must note that human beings alone cannot exist on earth without bio-diversity. While the large and entire landscape is available to us, the human beings, variety of flora and fauna find their existence only in these hill areas and environmentally important zones. Therefore, it is critical to preserve this pristine places more in the interest of human beings as such".

It came to court's notice that the surge in vehicle entries to Nilgiris has led to severe congestion, impacting residents, tourists, and the environment alike.

Specifically, (i) local residents can not even move even for their regular livelihood including for medical emergency and their very right to life is affected; (ii) the tourists also cannot reach their destinations and it spoils their very experience; (iii) the environment is the worst affected, as noted by the court.

Apart from that, court observed that the roads are carrying beyond their capacity and all these routes are meddling/interfering with the elephant corridors. "...the animals are worst affected. It causes irreparable damage to the environment," the division bench noted. 

On April 22, the high court asked the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, to take up the study for fixing carrying capacity in the hill stations viz., the Nilgiris, the Nilgiris District as well as Kodaikanal in Dindigul District. A study is being undertaken by the institutes in collaboration with the government. 

Meanwhile, for the current year, the court opined that without any restrictions on the number of vehicles entering the hill stations, their entry could be regulated by granting e-passes. Additionally, a user-friendly system for obtaining these passes can be developed.

"Without imposing any restrictions, by regulating the movement, firstly as temporary measure/pilot basis, the entire system can be made more efficient and improved besides providing the much needed valuable data for the study which is going to be undertaken by the State of Tamil Nadu through the aforesaid agencies," said the court. 

Furthermore, court pointed out that District Collectors have such powers under Section 115 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 r/w Rule 317 of the Tamil Nadu State Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 which empowers the respective District Collectors, being Regional Transport Authorities, to restrict or regulate the entry of vehicles.

Therefore, court directed the District Collector, the Nilgiris District, as well as the District Collector, Dindigul to develop a system/online form for generating an e-pass for vehicles entering the area.

Court, however, clarified that authorities can exempt the vehicles of the local residents, commercial vehicles regularly carrying essential commodities and also the vehicles carrying agricultural products from e-pass system.