Greens cry for action against realtors in Nilgiris

Ooty: Nilgiris Ecology and Animals Protection Samithi(NEAPS)  has called for action to book the realtors who have now begun to use mini earth-movers, in the guise of farm works, to landscape the tea gardens and other farm lands in Nilgiris to make them real estate hubs.

Making this appeal, Mr.B.K. Kumaran, president of the NEAPS, said that while there are strict restrictions on usage on earth-movers in Nilgiris due to judicial intervention in the past, now, the land sharks have begun to outsmart the officials by employing mini earth-mover, which is otherwise known as mini excavator, to landscape the farm lands in the guise of farm related works to prepare the farmlands ready to convert them for real estate hubs.

While one such mini earth mover  was seized at Kotagiri limits on Wednesday and a case was also filed in the police station in this regard, the movement of mini earth movers which is on rise across the Nilgiris  shows that such machinery is being used to land conversion works.

“The high court clearly defined in a judgment related usage of earth-movers in Nilgiris that there is absolutely no necessity for using earth-movers and excavators for the farm works as the earth-movers are not intended for agriculture works.  

The Nilgiris district administration imposed strict restrictions on the usage of earth-movers as one has to take permission from the district administration to use earth movers for landscaping works in the construction site once the building permission was sanctioned, while usage of earth movers for farm works is banned in Nilgiris,” he said.  

But using mini earth-movers and trying to impress that they are meant for agriculture works and its usage is not banned in Nilgiris, is amounting to outsmarting the officials and the court directions.

Hence, the Nilgiris district administration should ban use of mini earth movers/excavators for any type or landscaping works, he demanded.