The Madras High Court on Monday summoned the Environment, Climate Change and Forests Secretary Supriya Sahu to the court on February 28 to explain steps taken by the government to implement a 2015 court order to annihilate exotic species such as wattle and eucalyptus and instead restore the shola forests (patches of stunted evergreen moist broad leaf forests) in Kodaikanal, Palani, the Nilgiris and the entire Western Ghats in the State.
Justices V. Bharathidasan and N. Sathish Kumar expressed anguish over the government having done very little to protect the environment and the forests despite several orders passed by the court in this regard in the last few years. “We are really fed up with your attitude. Unless the Secretary comes up with a positive response on February 28, we would be constrained to make adverse remarks against the government,” Justice Kumar cautioned.
The judges pointed out a Division Bench of Justices R. Sudhakar (who got elevated as Chief Justice of Manipur High Court and retired from service in February 2021) and V.M. Velumani had taken painstaking efforts to pen an elaborate judgement in 2015 highlighting how the exotic and invasive species had invaded the marshes, shola forests and grasslands on the western ghats and destroyed the natural forests.
