Chennai, Sept 26 (BPNS)

A special division bench of the Madras High Court on Monday, September 26 called for monthly progress reports from district collectors on the eradication of the exotic and invasive species,( seemai karuvelam) that is considered harmful to the ecology.

The division bench of the Madras High Court comprising of Justices N. Satish Kumar and D. Bharath Chakravarthy ordered that the first of such reports must be filed before the court on November 2.

The bench also issued directions to the district collectors with respect to eradication of seemai karuvelam from forests and water bodies spread across the state.

The court also directed the Tamil Nadu forest department to remove the invasive species from all forest areas. The division bench of the Madras High court also granted permission to private land owners in forest areas to remove invasive species from their land and to use the material as firewood.

The Chief Engineer of the Water Resources Department informed the court that the invasive species was spread in 1.92 lakh hectares of water bodies under its control and that it was removed from 72000 hectares of water bodies. The Chief engineer also informed the court that the rest of the invasive species would be removed in a phased manner but the court refused to accept this.

The division bench informed the Chief Engineer  that the invasive species would grow all again and that the department must call tenders for removal of invasive species from all water bodies in a single go and uprooted.

The court also ordered the water resources department to complete the tender process within three months.

The division bench also expressed surprise on the reported expenses of panchayaths on spending Rs 4.74 crore for uprooting the invasive species from 2700 hectares of land.

The court directed the district collectors in their capacity as the Inspector of Panchayaths to oversee the eradication process of these invasive species and submit monthly reports before the court.