Erode: H Krishnanunni District Collector allows the residents of Thalavadi and surrounding 100 hamlets in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) to use the route forest forest without any limit until Karnataka opens postpost pulinary.
The villagers used to cross posts to reach Hasanur in Tamil Nadu, from where they went to Sathyamangalam for various purposes.
Thalavadi is near the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.
“Pulinjur CheckPost is closed by the Karnataka government during locking imposed because Covid.
Officials at checkpost allows people from Tamil Nadu only after they produce Covid negative certificates,” M Govindan, a resident of Thalavadi, said.
“But it’s not worthy of us to generate a certificate every time we cross the checkpost to reach Tamil Nadu.” So villagers approach forest officials to use the Thalamalai forest routes to reach Sathyamangalam for various needs including medical purposes.
Furthermore, officials allow villagers to use routes only after verifying their documents and collecting toll costs.
Meanwhile, villagers submitted a petition in collectors to use the previous route or permission or any cost until the Pulinjur Checkpost was opened again.
Collectors, after consulting with the Ministry of Forestry, issued the same command.
Before locking, the Ministry of Forestry did not allow villagers to use routes that were afraid of human-animal conflicts.