Madras High Court amici curiae to inspect site for proposed 184-feet-tall Lord Murugan statue at Marudhamalai

The Madras High Court has requested its amici curiae, in forest related cases, to inspect the site where Marudhamalai Subramaniaswamy Temple administration had decided to install a 184-feet tall statue of Lord Murugan at the Boluvampatti Forest Range in the Western Ghats.

A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, constituted to hear cases related to forests and wildlife, wanted the amici curiae T. Mohan, Chevanan Mohan, Rahul Balaji and M. Santhanaraman to visit the spot and file their report by January 23, 2026.

The inspection was ordered to be carried out in the presence of Special Government Pleader (forests) T. Seenivasan and Special Government Pleader (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department) N.R.R. Arun Natarajan after ascertaining a convenient date.

Last month, the Bench had directed the temple administration to reconsider the location of the statue since it was reported to be just 137-metre away from reserve forests. Subsequently, senior counsel R. Shunmugasundaram, representing the HR&CE department, explained the proposal in detail.

The court was told that the Subramaniaswamy Temple in Marudhamalai was located on 13 acres of land within the Boluvampatti forest range. Stating that its history dates back to several thousand years, the senior counsel said, the temple was built by Kongu Cholas and renovated by the Vijayanagara emperors.

The temple administration had now decided to install the 184-feet tall statue of Lord Murugan only on 23 cents out of the impact area of 4.96 acres available at the foothills. The remaining 4.73 acres would be left untouched and it could accommodate as many as 15,000 devotees at any point of time, the Bench was informed.

Stating that it had been decided to implement one-way traffic around the statue, Mr. Shunmugasundaram said, at present 2,500 devotees visit the temple during weekdays and 4,000 during weekends but the numbers were expected to increase to 5,000 and 10,000 respectively after the installation of the statue.

He said, the temple management had also decided to take on lease 7.98 acres of government poromboke land, located near Bharathiyar University and within a distance of 600 metres from the proposed statue, for establishing a bus terminal, vehicle parking facility and so on.

Asserting that the statue would not in any way affect an elephant corridor which was 7 km away, the senior counsel said, the forest officials at a guard office functioning at the foothills would erect a watch tower and ensure that no inconvenience was caused to the wildlife by the devotees.