CHENNAI: The State government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that seven teams of forest officials have been formed to study the challenges posed by invasive weeds, especially Prosopis juliflora (Seemai Karuvelam), in other States and find a way to root them out from Tamil Nadu.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) S Silambanan made the submission before a Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Munishwar Nath Bhandari, justices N Sathish Kumar, and D Bharatha Chakravarthy when a batch of petitions relating to removal of Prosopis juliflora came up for hearing.
The AAG told the bench that two of the teams, which visited Rajasthan and Odisha, have completed the assignment and submitted their reports. Silambanan said the field directors of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), Anamalai Tiger Reserve, and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR); the chief conservator of forests in Dindigul; and the conservator of forests in Dharmapuri have been requested to instruct their subordinates to begin work to remove the invasive species; such work has already begun in MTR and STR on pilot plots.
Recording this, the bench asked the State to come up with a policy to root out Prosopis juliflora and adjourned the matter by two weeks. It was on July 28, 2017, that the court ordered the removal of the tree after several petitions in this regard.