Despite the district stepping up its focus on seemai karuvelam (prosopsis juliflora) removal as per orders of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, officials acknowledge that the pace of removal still remained tepid for meeting the court-imposed deadline.
Senior officials from the revenue administration, speaking on anonymity, said that though the awareness campaigns being done will certainly help in removal of seemai karuvelam in private properties, a lot needed to be done for complete eradication of seemai karuvelam in public properties.
As per rough estimates accessed by The Hindu , the district had seemai karuvelam growth in 49,368 hectares, of which 10,193 hectares were in public properties like tanks and poramboke lands. The district administration has so far removed only close to 2,000 hectares, officials said.
A senior official pointed out that though the involvement of private players who deal with seemai karuvelam wood could substantially help in accelerating the removal, the district administration was yet to pursue that option.
“A few districts like Ramanathapuram has involved private players through tenders, who are doing business with seemai karuvelam wood like preparation of charcoal. It not only helps in faster removal but also save money and other resources for the district administration,” the official said.
It has to be noted that in a recent interaction with the media, Madurai Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao highlighted the limitations in terms of funds and resources for the activity by pointing out that ₹34,500 was needed for seemai karuvelam removal from one hectare, which worked out to roughly ₹35 crore for the removal from public properties.
In a protest earlier this week, Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department Officers Association also highlighted that they were under tremendous pressure regarding seemai karuvelam removal without adequate allocation of funds and availability of earthmoving equipment.
“Even if the private players remove the seemai karuvelam trees without paying anything to the government, it will still not be a bad idea since getting them removed is more important than earning income out of it,” the official added.
Another official from the Agriculture Department pointed out that the farmers’ associations in ayacuts of every tanks could also be given the right to remove and sell these trees. “They can use this income for maintenance of the tanks. Farmers have been repeatedly raising this request during grievance meetings,” he said.
The official also stressed on the need to focus on the involvement of volunteering groups and non-governmental organizations, which could help in overcoming the resource limitations in the removal of seemai karuvelam.
