RANIPET: The Ranipet district administration is readying nurseries in all the 288 village panchayats to raise saplings to be planted in place of seemai karuvelam (Prosopis Juliflora), which would be removed after the end this northeast monsoon, Collector D Baskara Pandian told DT Next on Tuesday.

The aim is to replace seemai karuvelam, which is a water intensive and invasive plant, with saplings of other species to increase green cover in the district and for the benefit of the people, he added.

“We are readying nurseries and will undertake transplanting of saplings when they have grown for five months so that they will take root in their new locations” he said, adding, “we do not plan to remove seemai karuvelam trees now as the locations where they are in abundance are usually water bodies. When we use vehicles to reach the trees vehicles might get stuck in mud as the soil will be loose and slushy.”

“Also, we are trying to overcome resistance to removal of these trees from some rural areas where they object to its removal on the ground that this was the only firewood source for them,” he said.

Hence, we plan to undertake sustained awareness programmes in the monsoon season to ensure that when we finally start removing seemai karuvelam trees villagers will also cooperate, he added. “Awareness programme targeted at specific villages will start shortly,” he noted.

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