: The Vellore district administration is gearing up to clear “seemai karuvelam” (prosopis juliflora) trees, an invasive species, from government and private lands across the district.
This follows the order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on February 10 to uproot the invasive trees species across the State in 15 days and submit a report to the court. The Bench had extended its earlier order to 13 districts under its jurisdiction to all districts in the State.
‘Seemai karuvelam’ trees are harmful to the environment as it sucks ground water, resulting in depletion of ground water table. As a result, other plants do not get sufficient water, a press release from the district administration said.
To work out ways to weed out the trees, Collector S.A. Raman convened a meeting with officials of various departments on Tuesday. Officials from Public Works Department, Revenue, Rural Development, Social Forestry, Highways, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, municipalities, Vellore Corporation and town panchayats took part in the meeting.
“We will immediately carry out an assessment of the total area infested by ‘seemai karuvelam’ trees. We will simultaneously take up works to clear the trees. Each department will be responsible to weed out the trees from areas belonging to them. For instance, the PWD officials should ensure that the trees are removed from tanks and riverbeds maintained by them, while local bodies should weed out the trees from their lands,” the Collector said. The government departments should cover their lands, tanks and government poramboke lands under this State-wide initiative. “I have also asked the officials to submit daily reports on how much area has been cleared of the trees each day. Officials have been engaged to supervise the work,” he added.
The Collector said owners of private patta lands should come forward to remove ‘seemai karuvelam’ trees on their lands by February 22.
“Notices are being issued to such owners to volunteer and remove the trees on their lands. If they fail to do so, the government will remove the trees and they will have to pay double the cost that was incurred for the work,” he added.
While Mr. Raman noted that a number of municipalities and town panchayats have already been removing ‘seemai karuvelam’ trees from their respective areas, he also pointed out that a number of volunteers have taken up the work in water bodies.
Two groups of volunteers have been removing the invasive trees species from Otteri Lake and Palavansathu Lake during weekends.
