The Horticulture Department is yet to find an alternative place to relocate its State Horticulture Garden at Kallar, near Mettupalayam in Coimbatore district, that lies in the Jaccanaire - Hulikal Durgam aka Kallar elephant corridor.
Sources said the Department could not find another suitable location that resembles the unique climatic and geographic conditions of Kallar, which lies at the Nilgiris foothills.
In September 2022, the Madras High Court ordered the Department to look for an alternative location, in response to petitions related to elephant corridors in Tamil Nadu. The 21.8-acre farm established in 1900 has a collection of rare plants and fruit-bearing trees that are grown in tropical and sub-tropical conditions.
With the hunt for suitable land not yielding results, the Department in March this year closed it to visitors. It also removed electric fences around the garden and structures, including the ones at the children’s play area. This was to ease the movement of elephants through the garden, which is situated in a bottleneck area of the elephant corridor connecting the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats elephant population, according to biologists.
During a recent hearing of petitions related to the Forest Department and wildlife conservation, the High Court warned that it would initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Secretary of the Horticulture Department for not carrying out the relocation even after nearly two years.
An official from the Horticulture Department said various places were considered for relocating the farm. But none of them have similar climatic conditions, soil, availability of water and other factors.
Kallar elephant corridor is listed as one of the corridors with “high ecological priority” in Wildlife Trust of India’s ‘Right of Passage – Elephant Corridors of India’, 2017.
Forest Department officials said incidents of wild elephants entering villages and urban localities near Mettupalayam are on the rise and securing the elephant corridor and reducing disturbances will help ease the conflict situation.
