The Madras High Court on September 26 called for monthly progress reports from all district Collectors in the State with respect to steps taken by the village panchayats for eradication seemai karuvelam (prosopis juliflora), an exotic and invasive species considered harmful to the ecology, and replacing them with native species.
A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy ordered that the first of such reports must be filed before the court on November 2. The Bench also issued comprehensive directions with respect to eradication of seemai karuvelam from the forests and waterbodies spread across the State.
The judges recorded the submission of the Forest Department that it had successfully completed the pilot project of removing the invasive species from 200 hectares of forest land in Aanamalai, Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam tiger reserves and directed it to move forward and remove the species from all other forest areas.
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