The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken suo motu cognizance of the alien plant invasion in the kole wetlands in Kerala.
The NGT has issued notices and sought responses from the Principal Secretary, Department of Environment, Kerala; Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (C), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change regional office; National Biodiversity Authority; Chairman, Kerala State Pollution Control Board; District Collector, Thrissur; Kerala Forest Research institute; and Kerala State Wetland Authority.
The action follows a report published in The Hindu on September 24.
The order passed by NGT’s judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati on October 18 quoted from the news story: “Kole wetlands, an internationally important Ramsar site of high value biodiversity, has been facing the threat of alien invasive species. Cabomba furcata, popularly called as pink bloom due to its massive flowering, has been a new threat to the kole fields, in addition to water hyacinth and Salvinia molesta. Many parts of the water canals, criss-crossing the vast kole fields, have turned pink now.”
Cabomba furcata, the submerged perennial aquatic plant growing in stagnant to slow-flowing freshwater, covers waterbodies by active stem propagation and hinders penetration of light into water. The plant requires a large quantity of oxygen and thus chokes the waterbodies. It adversely affects the diversity of native plants and freshwater fishes.
Invasive alien plants pose a major threat to the biodiversity of terrestrial and aquatic systems. Presence of the pink bloom, water hyacinth and Salvinia molesta is a threat to the kole fields, which produce a major chunk of the paddy requirements of the State.
