Idukki Collector Orders Removal of Illegal Fences Along Wildlife Corridors

The Idukki district administration has directed the removal of unauthorised fences, walls and other structures that obstruct wildlife movement, amid a spike in fatal wild animal attacks in the district.

District Collector Dinesan Cheruvattu issued the order, asking the Munnar Divisional Forest Officer to identify illegal barriers and act against them. The Local Self-Government Department, Revenue, Forest and Survey departments have been tasked with locating and demolishing structures built without clearance along forest boundaries.

A Devikulam Sub-Collector, the Munnar DFO, the LSGD Joint Director and the Deputy Director of Survey have been deputed to carry out the removals. Acting on the directive, forest officials began removing unauthorised solar fences at Panthadikkalam in the Devikulam forest range on Thursday.

The move has drawn strong opposition from farmer organisations and the Idukki Diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, both of which have demanded that the order be withdrawn.

Fr. Jins Karakkatt, director of the Idukki Diocese Media Commission, described the decision as inhumane. He said farmers put up fences and walls to protect their lives, property and farmland, and that removing these barriers would give wild animals free access to human settlements. He argued that the order, issued without proper study, must be withdrawn immediately.

Mathew Varghese, State Vice President of the All India Kisan Sabha, the farmers' wing of the CPI, also criticised the directive. He said it effectively suggested that residents should be evicted to make way for wildlife movement into human habitations, and called such decisions unacceptable.

High Range Circle Chief Conservator of Forests D. K. Vinod Kumar clarified that the department had only sought the removal of encroachments on government land. He said the Forest department had neither recommended nor initiated the removal of fences from private farmland, and that action was being taken strictly against illegal encroachments and fencing across identified elephant corridors on revenue and forest land. Claims about the demolition of farmers' fences were baseless, he added.

Officials said the district administration has stepped up efforts to curb human-wildlife conflict after four people were killed in wild elephant attacks within four months, with two of the deaths occurring within a week. The most recent victim was Vijayan, a 47-year-old tribal farmer from the Panthadikkalam settlement near Santhanpara, who was trampled to death by a wild tusker known as Chakkakompan on Wednesday morning.