The Forest Department has taken up mass removal of invasive species in the Ulandy range in the core area of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) where saplings of native trees are being raised.
ATR authorities said saplings of native trees had been planted after clearing invasive plants on 90 hectares of forest lands in the Ulandy range alone in the current financial year.
The works are implemented under the Restoration of Degraded Forests Landscape Project with financial assistance from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Forest lands in the ATR’s core areas were chosen when the Tamil Nadu government launched the project in 2022 to remove invasive plants and improve green cover. ATR staff headed by Field Director S. Ramasubramanian and Deputy Director (Pollachi) Bhargava Teja identified the lands for restoration in consultation with experts and biologists.
One forest patch in the Ulandy range, which had large swathes of bamboo, is also being restored. After a forest fire wiped out bamboo clumps in 2015, invasive species such as Lantana camara and Eupatorium formed thickets on the fertile ground.
The Forest Department roped in people from the ATR’s tribal settlements to remove the invasive plants. They planted saplings of a variety of native trees, including Aegle marmelos (Vilvam), Syzygium cumini (Jamun) and Pterocarpus marsupium (Vengai), and bamboo seedlings.
M. Sundaravadivel, forest range officer of Ulandy, said a total of 9,000 saplings had been planted on 90 hectares of forest lands in the range so far.
Under the project, for which NABARD has given a loan of ₹457 crore, the government aims at restoring 33,290 hectares of degraded forest lands in the State in five years. A total of 270 hectares of land is to be restored in all forest ranges of the ATR.
