CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over Tamil Nadu government "wasting time" and not complying with the directions issued for the removal of invasive exotic species from forest areas.
Rejecting the status report submitted by Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran, the Divisional Bench of justices V Bharathidasan and N Sathish Kumar questioned what was stopping the government from commencing the pilot-scale project on 700 hectares, which was identified in core tiger reserves.
Amicus Curiae T Mohan raised objection to the fact that the government was not consulting with the high court-appointed expert committee, but rather issued Expression of Interest (EoI), inviting private players, which elicited no response, and sending forest officials to different states to study the progress done there.
The bench has recorded its disappointment in the order and posted the case for April 1. The court told AAG that if the government does not show commitment and come-up with a proper proposal by next hearing, appropriate orders will be passed for removal of invasive exotic species and contempt proceedings will be initiated against the officials.
The first order in the matter was passed on February 27, 2014. The court said eight years have passed and by now the invasive species would have taken over large areas of forest land.
Tamil Nadu, including the Western Ghats, is among the chief invasion hotspots in the country. A recent compendium of plants of Tamil Nadu recorded a total of 6,723 taxa (species), and 2,459 are non-native alien species, comprising nearly 36.6% of the state's flora.
An expert committee constituted by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court circulated a questionnaire to all forest divisions to report back their estimates at the range level of the area under 17 listed Invasive Alien Species.
According to its report, the area under five major invasive alien species alone is estimated to be 268,100 hectares. Lantana camara was found in 1,85,000 ha, Prosopis juliflora (56,000 ha), Acacia mearnsii (wattle, 22,400 ha), Senna spectabilis (2,400 ha), and Opuntia sp. (2,300 ha). Meanwhile, the Invasive Alien Species Policy drafting committee said the area infested would be as large as 3,18,000 ha.