# Tamil Nadu to challenge SC eviction order for Megamalai region 2026-08-16T10:18:09+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet (2 source reports) Tamil Nadu has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order directing the eviction of people from the Megamalai region in Theni district. Law Minister R. Nirmalkumar told the Assembly on Monday that the petition was filed following Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's direction. The case is likely to be heard on Wednesday. The eviction notices, issued by the Forest Department in recent weeks, affect thousands of households in the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve on the Tamil Nadu side. The Hindu reports the Supreme Court, based on Central Empowered Committee recommendations, ordered a time-bound eviction plan, penalties against 118 government servant encroachers, and a ban on new non-forest activities until all encroachments are removed. The court also directed the CEC to consider deploying paramilitary forces if the state fails to comply. The minister blamed successive DMK and AIADMK governments for failing to handle the issue properly, saying the region was declared a reserve forest in 2009 and a tiger reserve in 2021. The Hindu notes the Forest Rights Act of 2006 was meant to protect forest dwellers, but critics say it has been ignored by courts and officials. Parliament enacted the Act to undo historical injustice, but the FRA's verification process has been poorly implemented. ## Coverage - thehindu.com - thehindu.com (2) This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-09-27T06:17:13+00:00. Tags: Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve, Central Empowered Committee, Forest Rights Act, Supreme Court Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-orders-mass-evictions-in-agasthyamalai-critics-say-fra-ignored/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-orders-mass-evictions-in-agasthyamalai-critics-say-fra-ignored/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/