In Gudalur and Pandalur Taluks of the Nilgiris, the tea, coffee, cardamom and pepper estates are not empty forest — they are home and livelihood to lakhs of people. A proposal before the Supreme Court (I.A. Nos. 54738 & 54739 of 2026) asks to declare about 31,510 acres of this living plantation land as Reserved Forest, and to push the population into 44 small clusters.

It is listed before the Central Empowered Committee on 29 June 2026 — and it carries no plan for the jobs it will end, no plan to rehabilitate families before they are moved, and no answer for the 529 families whose land-right claims have waited unheard for over fifty years.

About 2,30,699 people across these two Taluks depend on the plantation economy. Over 10,000 workers and their families live on or commute to these estates; when an estate closes, the wage that feeds the worker, the village shop and the town disappears. A house-plot with no work is not rehabilitation — it is destitution.

We are not against forests. We ask the Government of Tamil Nadu to do four things before any irreversible order: decide the pending land claims first; place the real employment and production impact before the Committee; pay compensation before any family is moved; and hear the people who live here.

Please add your name and ask the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu to hear Gudalur and Pandalur before 29 June. View the submission here Letter to Chief Minister