Two NGOs offer machinery free of cost to weed out seemaikaruvelam

Two non-governmental organisations, Green Needa, Needamangalam, and Exnora International, Chennai, have come forward to offer machinery, free of charges, to weed out ‘seemaikaruvelam’ trees (Prosopis Juliflora) in the State.

In a statement on March 19, Chief Coordinator of Green Needa M. Rajavelu and the EI president S. Senthur Pari have welcomed the Madras High Court Madurai Bench’s recent direction to weed out completely the anti-biodiversity plant – ‘seemaikaruvelam’ – imported to Tamil Nadu during drought in the past.

In an effort to ensure elimination of the invasive plant species, the NGOs aspire to make this exercise as a mass movement with the involvement of local people. Hence, the NOGs decided to make available the machinery required to uproot these plants on hire-charges free basis to the local people aspiring to convert their region a ‘seemaikaruvelam’ free zone. Those wishing to avail this assistance would have to take care of the fuel expenses only, the statement added.