Madras HC makes e-passes mandatory to enter 2 Tamil Nadu’s hill stations

The Madras high court has made e-passes mandatory for people travelling to Tamil Nadu’s two hill stations – Ooty in Nilgiris district and Kodaikanal in Dindigul district — from May 7 to June 30. The decision was taken for data collection to study how much vehicular traffic the ghat roads can take. The verdict was delivered on Monday and the order which was released on Tuesday showed that the court was shocked that 20,000 vehicles enter Nilgiris everyday. “We pass this order more importantly with the important purpose of saving the entire Nilgiris biosphere and for the protection of Western Ghats which is a more serious question,” justices D Satish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy said in their orders. “We must note that human beings alone cannot exist on earth without bio-diversity.”
The status report filed by the government revealed that over 20,000 vehicles are entering the Nilgiris every day, which includes around 11,500 cars, 1300 vans, 600 buses and 6,500 two-wheelers during the peak summer season. “It can be seen that the situation is alarming,” the court said.
Without a place for movement of traffic, the court said it affects the local residents who aren’t able to move even for their livelihood, for medical emergencies and their very right to life is affected. The experience is spoilt for tourists too, the court noted. But contended that it is the environment which is the worst affected.
“The roads are carrying beyond their capacity,” the court said. “It can also be seen that all these routes are meddling/interfering with the elephant corridors. In view of traffic jams, vehicles are stranded in the roads cutting across forests, the animals are worst affected. It causes irreparable damage to the environment.”
Following the system which was introduced during Covid-19 for people to obtain e-passes to move to different districts, the court passed the order but informed the government to allow all vehicles without restrictions. The state government has roped in two institutions– the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, to take up the study for fixing carrying capacity in Ooty and Kodaikanal.
“Therefore, while the study is being undertaken, for the current year, without any restrictions on the number of vehicles entering the hill stations entry of vehicles can be regulated by granting e-passes,” the court said.