CHENNAI: A special bench of the Madras High Court has directed Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests department, to appear before it on February 27 and explain the delay in releasing funds for maintenance of forest areas cleared of invasive species.
The bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy issued the direction recently while hearing cases relating to the removal of prosopis juliflora and other invasive species from forests. It was brought to the notice of the court that Rs 81.78 crore was yet to be released by the government for maintenance of forest areas where such species were rooted out.
The bench commented that if the maintenance is not done properly, the invasive species will come up naturally and will defeat the purpose of the project to remove such species. Unless the amount is released by the government forthwith, the very object of the exercise will be derailed, therefore, the additional chief secretary to forest department shall be present in the court on the next hearing date (February 27), the bench said in the order.
It noted that the maintenance work shall be done periodically so that complete removal of the invasive species can be achieved.