CHENNAI: The Madras High Court expressed disappointment as the State government had spent lots of public money for removing invasive species (prosopis julifora) without following the court order.

“If the State failed to take action as per our directions, the court itself will step in for action,” said a special bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, after perusing the status report submitted by the State containing the actions taken so far to remove the invasive species.

Upon perusing the status report, the bench came to know that State had spent nearly Rs 2.37 crore of public money from February 2024 to January 2025, despite a court order that called for public auction to complete the process of removing the invasive species, as it would generate revenue to the State. Special government pleader (SGP) T Seenivasan also submitted that 738 committees were constituted in 37 districts to remove the invasive species.

However, the court was not satisfied with the status report and directed the State to call for public auction inviting private players to remove the invasive species across the State and declare it as places free of invasive species. “If the State had failed to comply with the order, the court will issue notification to call for the public auction,” said the bench.

The SGP sought one more opportunity to comply with the court order and submitted that a meeting is scheduled on April 4 presiding with the Chief Secretary regarding the steps to be taken to remove the invasive species. After the submission, the bench posted the matter to April 25 for further proceedings.