Removal of seemai karuvelam trees given a thrust in Perambalur district

Perambalur district administration is according priority to removing seemai karuvelam trees from the waterbodies. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO Removal of seemai karuvelam trees (prosopis juliflora) — an exotic and invasive species — from waterbodies and government poromboke lands in Perambalur district has been given a thrust, following direction from the Madras High Court, to protect the environment and groundwater. Having done the enumeration for this exercise, the Perambalur district administration has accorded priority for the removal of seemai karuvelam by focussing on their removal from waterbodies at first. The Water Resources department and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department in the district have commenced the exercise by steadily removing the invasive species from their respective lands. Official sources said the Water Resources department had removed seemai karuvelam trees from 79 acres of its lands so far while the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department had removed the species from 32.50 acres of its lands till now.Perambalur Collector Sharanya Ari told The Hindu on Sunday that priority had been accorded for the removal of the invasive species from the lands belonging to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Water Resources and other government departments. The focus would be on their removal from waterbodies at first with the exercise having commenced, the Collector said. Notices would be issued to private persons on whose lands the growth of this invasive species had been noticed asking them to clear them. The Collector recently convened a meeting with officials of all government departments in Perambalur in connection with the removal of seemai karuvelam trees from government and private lands in the district. Published - September 06, 2026 06:20 pm IST