COIMBATORE: What was once a thorny menace choking the flora and altering the landscape of the Nilgiris forests is now firing up the tea factories across the hills.
The highly invasive Lantana camara (Unnichedi), which smothered vast stretches of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), is being cleared, crushed and compressed into eco-friendly fuel briquettes, used in heating and cooking, replacing the traditional coal.
“The invasive weed is being removed from around 125 hectares every month in MTR, including 75 hectares in the core zone and 50 hectares in the buffer zone. Similar removal work is under way in other divisions of the Nilgiris as well,” said R Vidyadhar, the deputy director at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR).
In Masinagudi alone, nearly 400 hectares of Lantana were cleared over the last few months, facilitating unhindered movement of wild animals. The results are already visible in cleared patches, with grasslands witnessing a resurgence, accompanied by increased deer activity and safari-goers reporting better wildlife sightings now, as dense Lantana camara thickets that once hindered road visibility have disappeared.
Officials emphasise that sustained removal for at least three consecutive years is essential to completely eradicate the weed and allow native species to regenerate. The briquette production unit in Masinagudi, launched in May last year, is at the heart of this green transformation.
“Unlike other units that use chemical binders or wood sawdust, we make briquettes purely out of Lantana camara, which has high calorific value for sustained burning and generates less ash. We want the process to be as eco-friendly as possible,” Vidyadhar explained.
The process begins deep inside the forest. Mature Lantana camara stems are harvested and chopped into smaller pieces using heavy-duty chippers.
The material is then transported to the factory, pulverised into fine chips under 10 mm, and compressed into dense briquettes.
Each briquette weighs about 1.5 kg, burns like coal and sustains heat for long durations, making it ideal for tea factories. “So far, around 26–30 tonnes of briquettes have been sold, generating over Rs two lakh in revenue. The briquettes are priced at Rs 7,300 per tonne and are in high demand from tea factories that currently rely on fuel wood sourced from the plains,” said forester I Javith.
One of the biggest challenges has been moisture. Mudumalai’s damp nights, especially during the monsoon months of June and July, often hamper the drying of the agricultural produce. “Earlier, we had to dry the weed under tarpaulins in the sun. It was time-consuming and inefficient. If the moisture content is high, the briquettes tend to break. Now, a new dryer unit is set to be installed and once operational by the end of this month, we expect a major leap in production from a maximum capacity of one tonne per day currently to as much as 10 tonnes,” Javith added.
Officials say there is strong demand from places like Coimbatore, Karur and across Tamil Nadu. We have sufficient stock of Lantana to scale up production. The average machine capacity stands at six to eight tonnes per day, though operational bottlenecks have limited the output so far.
It is worth noting that the initiative has also created meaningful employment. Currently, 12 tribal workers, nearly half of them women, are engaged at the plant, earning between Rs 17,000 and Rs 20,000 per month. Many more are employed in cutting and clearing lantana from forest areas.
The Forest Department is hand-holding the project for now. Once the unit turns profitable, it will be handed over to the village’s Eco-Development Committee (EDC). “Our goal is to make the unit self-sustaining. Once it generates steady and profitable business, the local community members will take over operations,” said Vidyadhar.
Looking ahead, officials are also exploring the possibility of converting the initiative into a carbon credit project.
“Normally, trees are cut and used as fuel wood in tea factories. Here, we are removing an invasive species and restoring native species and the forest landscape, while providing alternative fuel. Therefore, we are in the initial stages of examining carbon credit options,” the deputy director, Vidyadhar, added.