thadagam valley appears battered the greenery of the land is pulled out in chunks nearly 100ft deep trenches crisscross it and the ageold streams that ran across it are dry the scene is the effect of exploitation by brick kilns that mushroomed on the forest fringes in the area over the past few decades this forced elephants to change their tried and tested paths bringing them closer to human territories and resulting in more instances of mananimal conflictthough most of the brick kilns in the valley have been shut and sealed for over a month now environmentalists say the damage done to the elephant corridor and the valleys groundwater table is immeasurable now to recreate the elephant corridor and revive some of the streams may be impossible or take decades fear environmentalists though people can dig only as deep at 65ft for any mining activity and are not allowed to dig at all in land under the hill area conservation authority brick kiln owners had dug anywhere between 15ft to more than a 100ft deep trenches along the fringes of the western ghats a unesco world heritage site and a biodiversity hotspot thadagam valley used to be a paradise for bull elephants at a specific time of the year the animals would leave their herd and wander away to find a mate says s muralidharan of the indian centre for animal rights and education one of petitioners who filed a case against the kiln owners the valley used to be a farming region so the animals could access food easily he saysthe natural water sources too felt the heat of exploitation many streams like sanganoor used to originate in thadagam and were fed by at least 14 other streams says environmentalist mohan raj the kowsika river used to pass through thadagam and would recharge groundwater help to irrigate farms and was a drinking water source for animals he says the first brick kilns began to appear in the early 1990s there were around 10 units producing around 3000 bricks each after taking mud from under the waterways they mushroomed after 2010 when kerala and karnataka banned mining of red sand that was required to make tiles and brick many entrepreneurs bought the old machinery from closed tile and brick factories in the neighbouring states modified them and set up their own units in the regionthe deep trenches formed by scooping out mud were in the path of the elephant corridor the elephants would often fall into them the ones that tried to avoid the trenches and take alternative routes would enter human territory and be chased away says activist s ganesh the trenches would also prevent elephants that wandered out of the forest for food to reenter it easily says mohan rajthe effects of the brick kiln industry go far deeper says muralidharan as the units have poisoned the corridor by burning material like rubber lignite furnace oil and palmyra bark the palmyra wood also attracts elephants the burning of