Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Forest Department

Seemai Karuvelam And Other Similar Plants :- The Threat of dominant , invasive species.

1. Mr Vai .Gopalaswamy, an accomplished Tamil politician has not been encountering any success lately. However, he can take reasonable pride in the fact that  it is his litigation that spurned up the Madras High Court to issue orders to all District Collectors and Forest Departments that Seemai Karuvelam  plants must not only be cut and uprooted but also be prevented  from sprouting again by having  burning embers laid on  the root system. In many ways, this is a clear judicial environmental legislation. But citizen groups are not complaining against it. In fact in some cases, the courts has ordered removal of these trees by litigants to secure bail, parole or even in lieu of cost .  Division Bench of Madras High court has frowned upon such practices. But that is a totally different matter altogether. 2. The Seemai Karuvelam ( Prosopis Juliflora)  is not by itself a bad species. It is native to Mexico and now spread to all major continents.Everywhere it has been recognised a