: “If the court had directed the officials to raze down the Yanaimalai (a hillock in the shape of an elephant at Y. Othakadai here), they would have converted it into a Poonaimalai (a hillock in the shape of a cat) overnight but when it comes to obeying the direction to weed out the harmful Seemai Karuvelam ( prosopis juliflora ) trees, there seems to be very little progress,” said Justice A. Selvam, the administrative judge of the Madras High Court Bench here.
During the course of hearing a case related to removal of Seemai Karuvelam trees, the judge asked Special Government Pleader M. Govindan about the direction issued by a Division Bench comprising him and Justice P. Kalaiyarasan on January 10 to remove the invasive species from public as well private lands in Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruchi and Karur districts.
Replying to it, the SGP said that the works were on and asked the Ramanathapuram revenue officials who were present in the court to explain the progress made so far. However, not satisfied with their explanation that the court direction was being followed scrupulously, Mr. Justice Selvam asked them if they had removed the trees from the Periya Kanmoi (a major water body) in Ramanathapuram town and the officials replied in the negative.
“See, they have not removed even a single tree from that Kanmoi. The Central team, which toured the drought-affected areas, had itself asked about the growth of seemai karuvelam on the waterbody. There seems to be some action taken at the town level but there is no action at the Taluk level. They have not removed the trees in any of the villages. I can see it myself and also gathering information from various sources. You people do not obey the court orders at all.
“We had issued the direction only for public good. It is nothing but a beneficial order for the people. These trees absorb all the moisture in the atmosphere and prevents rains. It also causes several other harmful things,” the judge said. He added that further course of action on the issue would be decided on Tuesday after perusing the reports to be filed by all 13 Principal District Judges who had been ordered to inspect the progress made by the government machinery.
