CHENNAI: Beginning Thursday, February 10,, vehicular movement through the Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) in Tamil Nadu will be barred between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. for commercial vehicles and between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. for all other vehicles.

The order came after a Madras High Court division bench, led by Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bhartha Chakravarthy, directed the state forest department to apply the Erode district collector's travel restriction notification, which was issued in 2019.

Following a PIL filed by counsel S.P. Chockalingam seeking the court's intervention on the "severe breaches" on the part of forest officers in enforcing the notification issued by the Erode district collector on January 7, 2019, the Madras High Court intervened in the matter.

The petitioner claimed that motor traffic through the Tiger Reserve was killing multiple animals, and that animals generally cross the road at night. He also mentioned how the ban on night vehicular traffic in the Gudalur sector resulted in a significant reduction in animal deaths due to accidents.

The Erode district collector issued a notification on January 7, 2019, prohibiting commercial vehicles from plying over the Bannari-Karappalam section that runs through the STR from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and other vehicles from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

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