The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Bench, has rapped the Tirunelveli Collector and Sivagiri Tahsildar for their non-appearance in a case filed by the villagers of Nelkattumseval against the conversion of a stream into a road in Tirunelveli district.

R. Sundaraiah Thevar and R.Velusamy Thevar of Nelkattumseval village, Sivagiri taluk, filed an application before the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi seeking to restrain the authorities from converting the land into a road and further sought direction to maintain the subject survey land as it exists as per the revenue records. The application has been pending before the NGT since September last year.