Petition seeking to shoot gaur: HC orders notice to govts

Chennai, Dec 5 (UNI) Madras High Court today ordered notice returnable by two weeks to the Union and Tamil Nadu Governments on a petition seeking a direction to the authorities to act as per the Wildlife Protection Act and shoot scores of gaur trapped inside Poolathur village in Kodaikanal taluk of Dindigul District.

Justice K Suguna ordered notice on a petition filed by A R Gokulakrishnan, an agriculturist of the Village.

Mr Gokulakrishnan submitted that instances of gaur attacking, killing and maiming humans had risen in the village and 15 persons had been killed. The official toll was five. The number of injured was estimated to be between 75 to 100. The loss to crops, mostly foreign exchange earners, was estimated to be over Rs 100 crore.

In this situation, he moved a public interest litigation in 2005, seeking erection of a fence around reserve forests in Tamil Nadu.

The state government replied that a forest department proposal to put suitable fencing around reserve forests was pending before it.

On this, a Division Bench directed disposition of the proposal by taking an appropriate decision within three months.

The state government erected a solar fence running upto a distance of five km but did not evacuate the 100 gaur that were inside the plantations. The bison were unable to return to the wild even if they wanted to. The solar fence proved a provocation as it made the gaur attack the human populace with greater ferocity, he contended.

An additional issue that cropped up was the epidemic infection the gaurs had with a peculiar species of ticks and mites. These ticks had mutated to infecting humans and the assault had reached alarming proportions with estate workers unable to escape the onslaught, leading to the collapse of the local economy, he said.

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