A State government-constituted expert committee chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Research) R.K. Upadhyay has concluded that seemai karuvelam trees are not directly responsible for the depletion of ground water in the State.
Coming at a time when the State is pulling out all stops to eradicate the tree, the committee’s additional report – submitted to the Madras High Court – has the potential to change the discourse around seemai karuvelam (Prosopis juliflora).
The report says that most negative aspects attributed to the mesquite are not backed by scientific data. Therefore, despite acknowledging that P. juliflora is among the world’s 100 worst invasive species and that is among the State’s 274 alien species, the committee says that, “this species has a positive impact on the overall ecosystem of Tamil Nadu.”
The report, finalised by the 12-member committee on October 9, was submitted before the First Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and M. Sundar. The court had asked for the report on July 28 in response to a PIL filed by V. Meganathan, an advocate, who is against the removal of the trees.
‘Hate psychology’
The report takes the critics of the karuvelam head on. “In spite its positive role, the extensive spread of the P. juliflora has generated some kind of a hate-psychology among sections of public and some NGOs,” it says.
Relying on data provided by the Central Ground Water Board, the committee analysed the long-term water level trend across all the districts of the State. Data from a total of 556 wells were analysed. “The bar diagram of all 32 districts of Tamil Nadu of pre-monsoon 2006-2015 and post-monsoon 2007-2016 clearly indicates random distribution of rising and falling trend of groundwater in all districts irrespective of seemai karuvelam . It means seemai karuvelam has no direct bearing on groundwater level,” says the report.
