Chennai, August 23: The Tamil Nadu unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist) today urged Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to take immediate steps to lift the ban on vehicle movements during nights on Nilgiris-Udhagamandalam-Mysore highways.
The Samraj District Collector in Karnataka had passed the ban order, prohibiting vehicles from plying on these roads during nights, but the order was not implemented.
The ban came into force from August 10, after Karnataka High Court confirmed the same on a petition filed by an environment protection organisation.
In a letter to Mr Karunanidhi, CPI(M) State Unit Secretary N Varadarajan said the ban, though imposed with a right intention to protect the animals, had adversely affected people and traders who reside in the border areas of the three States.
The ban could be lifted only by the court and the Kerala and Karnataka governments were trying to implead themselves in the petition, seeking to lift the ban, Mr Varadarajan said and urged that Tamil Nadu also implead itself in the case.
People cutting across party lines in Nilgiris and other people welfare organisations, have already given representations to the Chief Minister, he said and urged him to pass necessary orders at the earliest.
The ban is in force on Highway 67 and 212, which passed through the animal sanctuaries of Muthanga in Kerala, Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Bandipur in Karnataka, he added.
—-Agencies