By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Wayanad Prakruti Samraksana Samithi has urged senior Forest officials, including the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Vigilance), to conduct an inquiry and initiate legal proceedings regarding the alleged encroachment and unauthorised survey activities inside the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kozhikode district.
Samithi president N. Badusha has also petitioned the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), against a survey by the Public Works department (PWD), Roads Division, for an alternative road from Padinjarethara to Poozhithodu, traversing the notified Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary.
He said that the Chief Wildlife Warden had given permission to the PWD to carry out only a drone-based survey, expressly excluding a ground-level GPS survey, machinery movement, or physical entry into the sanctuary.
However, on Thursday (September 11, 2025), certain PWD officials, in collusion with some individuals, unlawfully entered the sanctuary under the cover of the said permission and encroached upon a protected area. Such conduct constitutes a blatant violation of Sections 27 and 29 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Mr. Badusha said.
He added that the proposal for the road had earlier been examined and rejected after due statutory scrutiny. Any attempt to revive it without the sanction of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and MoEF&CC is an arbitrary and unlawful act and a colourable exercise of authority.
If allowed to proceed, the proposed road project would irreversibly fragment the last contiguous forest habitat between Wayanad and Kozhikode and undermine the ecological integrity of the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary. Besides, it would intensify human-wildlife conflict in the region, Mr. Badusha said.
He added that the State government had already committed substantial public funds to the alternative tunnel-road project to Wayanad, rendering this parallel proposal destructive as well as redundant.
