Seemai karuvelam: Notices issued to land owners

Confiscation for failure to pay double the removal expenses, warns Collector

In an attempt to expedite the removal of seemai karuvelam growth, particularly in private properties, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao on Monday warned that the district administration would go to the extent of removing the growth, collect double the expenses and confiscate the property for non-payment.

Addressing the media here, Collector said that notices were being issued to property owners asking them to remove seemai karuvelam within a specific period, depending on the extent of growth. “If they fail to do so, government will remove the growth and charge the property owner double the amount needed for removal, as per directions of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court,” he said.

Public Works Department here has fixed the amount needed for removal of seemai karuvelam from one hectare of land at ₹34,500.

Mr. Rao said that if the particular person failed to pay the amount, proceedings would be initiated under the Tamil Nadu Revenue Recovery Act to confiscate the property concerned.

Lukewarm response

The announcement follows the lukewarm response from the public in removing seemai karuvelam from their properties and the dissatisfaction expressed by the High Court Bench over the slow progress made in the district overall in eradication of the tree species.

According to Mr. Rao, rough estimates show that Madurai district has seemai karuvelam growth in 49,368 hectares of land, of which 39,175 hectares are private property. He said that in the remaining 10,193 hectares of public property, seemai karuvelam trees had already been removed.

“Though the trees in public property were removed at a faster pace, removal from private properties is quite slow,” he said, adding that the district administration was also planning more awareness campaigns to accelerate the removal.

On the possibility of inviting tenders from private players dealing with seemai karuvelam wood for removal, he said that the administration was pursuing that option for removal in tanks. “However, the private players show interest only in areas with full and dense growth of the trees,” he said.