The Tiruchi Corporation on Friday launched a drive to destroy ‘seemai karuvelam’ (Prosopis juliflora) trees from public places in the city.
The Corporation has also asked owners of vacant private lands to remove the trees in their sites within three days and inform the civic body. Failure to do so would attract legal action as per the Corporation rules, Corporation Commissioner and Special Officer N. Ravichandran said.
The move comes close on the heels of a direction from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to Collectors of all 13 districts under its jurisdiction to weed out ‘seemai karuvelam’ (prosopis juliflora ) trees from water bodies, river courses and all other places. The court had ordered that the trees be removed by January 10 and individual reports filed before the court on January 11. On Friday, Corporation officials fanned out to different parts of the city with earth movers to remove the trees from public places. The trees were removed from public places under the jurisdiction of the Corporation at Kattur, Kamarajar Nagar near Airport and near Mavadikulam.
