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The grasslands between Munnar–Top Station Road and Mattupetty Reservoir provide natural forage, water and open space for wild elephants, said the NGO in the letter. The availability of food and water within the landscape may reduce the need for elephants to enter nearby plantations, agricultural lands, roads and human settlements, thereby helping prevent human–elephant conflict, the letter said. These grasslands must be recognised as a functioning wildlife habitat, not as vacant land available for tourism-oriented development, they said.
Environmentalists have come out against the move, raising concerns and have written to the chief minister, forest department minister and officials, revenue and tourism authorities, appealing for an immediate independent ecological assessment and the suspension of further construction and expansion of tourism activities in the habitat. ANEC Trust, an NGO, has written in this regard to the concerned authorities, including Kerala Livestock Development Board (KLDB), under which Mattupetty grasslands fall. Elephant herds, including females with young calves, reportedly frequent the area.