The court-initiated movement against s eemai karuvelam (Prosopis juliflora) trees, an invasive species considered harmful to nature, took a step forward on Thursday when as many as five judges of the Madras High Court and a host of advocates participated in a function at its Bench here to release a short book containing a compilation of Tamil essays to educate the common man about the ills of the species.
Justice A. Selvam, the administrative judge of the High Court Bench and the proponent of the movement, released the book ‘Let’s eradicate completely, the seemai karuvelam tree,’ compiled by Advocate Commissioner K. Swamidurai and professor S. Vincent, in his chambers.
The first copy was handed over to Justice T.S. Sivagnanam in the presence of Justices M. Sathyaranarayanan, P. Velmurugan and C.V. Karthikeyan.
Since a note on the book stated that it cost ₹40 and that the money collected from its sale would be deposited in a bank account opened by the High Court exclusively for the purpose of mobilising money to uproot seemai karuvelam trees,
Mr. Justice Selvam paid ₹500 to Advocate Commissioner R. Gandhi and purchased 12 copies of the book on the spot. Immediately, other advocates followed suit and ₹8,500 was collected in no time.
“We were overwhelmed by the spontaneous gesture of the administrative judge and the enthusiasm shown by the lawyers in purchasing the books. The entire amount was deposited in the court-operated bank account immediately,” said Mr. Gandhi.
