‘Intensify drive against karuvelam in private sites’

High Court Judge Selvam, along with three other judges, three district collectors and other officials flagged off the seemai karuvelam removal drive at Vandiyur. 

Ramanathapuram Collector Nagarajan later handed over a cheque for Rs 3 lakh towards the seemai karuvelam fund to Justice Selvam. 

The team then inspected the work carried out by the JCB and inspected extent of the vegetation along the Vaigai bed. Justice Selvam instructed the officials expedite the work and remove the trees as early as possible. 

After the judges left, Rao told media persons that out of 3.75 lakh hectares in the district, 1.75 lakh hectares remain uncultivated and out of this land area, seemai karuvelam plants were spread over 50,000 hectares. A fund of Rs 2 lakh has been mobilised to remove seemai karuvelam and the removal drive on the Vaigai river bed was being carried out by the Public Works Department(PWD). Simultaneously, work was also being carried out in 1,500 tanks maintained by PWD and another 3,000 maintained by various unions. 

In Madurai district, over 80 percent of Seemai Karuvelam trees were on private lands. Notices to remove the killer groove had been sent to over 14,187 land owners in Madurai district and out of them, over 3,000 had responded by completing the work on their site. 

Government agencies will remove the plants from the remaining lands and collect a fine which would be twice the amount that was incurred by the departments as ordered by the High Court. So far, Rs 8.7 lakh has been collected as fine in the district. Meanwhile, a large number of private institutions, NGOs and students have also joined the initiative and it was a welcome step, the Collector said. Sivaganga Collector, Malavizhi, Madurai Corporation Commissioner, Sandeep Nanduri, and other dignitaries were present at the the Judge’s inspection work.