E-pass system in the Nilgiris, Kodaikanal not capturing accurate data on tourist movement, says Madras High Court

Judges insist on additional measures such as installing Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras to improve quality of data

The Madras High Court on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the e-pass system, which has been in force in the Nilgiris district and Kodaikanal in Dindigul district since May this year, not capturing accurate data related to the entry of motor vehicles carrying tourists to the hill stations.

A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy refused to accept the claim of the Nilgiris district administration that only 44 buses and 767 cars had entered the district during the Deepavali holidays between October 31 and November 3. They said it was also highly improbable that only 54 buses and 1,141 cars had entered Kodaikanal between November 1 and November 5. The judges feared that collection of such inaccurate data might affect the endeavour taken by the Bench to fix the carrying capacity for the ghat roads.

Referring to news reports, along with photographs, of hundreds of vehicles having piled up for kilometres together on the ghat roads leading to both hill stations during the Deepavali holidays, the judges said, it was hard to believe the data provided in the status reports filed before the court.

They told Nilgiris Collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru and Dindigul Collector M.N. Poongodi to come up with proper solutions, such as installing automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to ensure no tourist vehicle enters the two hill stations without the mandatory e-pass.

The Division Bench suggested that sufficient number of touchscreen kiosks could also be set up at all the entry points of the hill stations so that the tourists could utilise those kiosks, with broadband connectivity, to access the epass.tnega.org portal, and obtain a pass before embarking on their journey uphill.

Further, it said the Tamil Nadu e-governance Agency could also explore the possibility of creating a drop-down menu containing a list of the licensed hotels, resorts, homestays, and such other accommodations available in the hill stations in order to make the e-pass portal more user-friendly.

The judges agreed with amici curiae Chevanan Mohan and Rahul Balaji that the drop-down menu would also help prevent people from providing false information regarding their stay and also weed out illegal resorts and homestays in the hill stations.

Making it clear that they have not imposed any prohibition on tourist movement, the judges said, the idea behind the e-pass was only to collect accurate data for the use of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and Indian Institute of Management -Bangalore experts who would be studying the carrying capacity.

They directed the two Collectors to file either a status report or an affidavit by December 2 listing the measures that they intend to take to ensure strict implementation of the e-pass system 24x7 on all routes leading to the hill stations and other ancillary measures for the collection of credible data.

Invasive species

While dealing with another case related to the eradication of exotic and invasive species from the forests, the judges asked Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran to persuade the State to come up with a deadline for eradicating Prosopis juliflora (seemai karuvelam) trees from forest areas.

Appreciating the State for having fixed October 1, 2025 as the deadline for cutting down all Senna spectabilis trees from forests in the State, the Bench said, a similar ultimatum should be fixed for Prosopis juliflora and even private organisations could be roped in for the eradication work.

The judge said it would be a feather in the cap of the government if it succeeds in eradicating Prosopis juliflora too, initially from the forests and then from other places. They said the progeny would be ever thankful if the environmentally unfriendly species were eradicated completely from the State. The judges asked the AAG to get instructions in this regard by December 5.

Published - November 09, 2024 12:04 am IST