Forest dept warned of action for not removing invasive species

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday warned the forest department of initiating contempt proceedings if it fails to implement orders relating to the removal of the invasive species of plants and trees.

A division bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the direction on hearing a batch of petitions in connection with the removal of exotic foreign species in the Western Ghats.

When the matter was listed before the judges, the forest special GP filed a status report before the bench to apprise the court about the developments.

According to the special GP 191 plantations were found in the Nilgiris and tenders have been floated for removing 53 plantations out of the 191. He further said that 16 plantations have been removed and an amount of Rs.4.02 crore was generated by means of selling the plantations.

However, the judges recalled that the same inputs were submitted by the forest department's last hearing and questioned the current progress.

“We have already directed the forest department to float tender for all the 191 plantations. Why was the order not complied?” the bench questioned. As the GP submitted that he would submit the details after obtaining the instructions, the bench expressed its dissatisfaction for not complying with the orders.

The court also directed the forest department to conduct the yield assessment to find out the existence of the invasive species within 15 days.

“After this, the forest department shall remove the 191 plantations by floating a fresh tender within December 22. The funds generated through the removal of invasive species should be used for plantation of native trees and removal exotic species,” the court held.