Latest news with #Juliflora
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Eco-restoration mission to free Vrindavan of green scourge
The forest department is set to embark on a highly unusual mission this week – chopping off 10,17,195 painstakingly numbered saplings and trees in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) where felling a single tree invites the wrath of the Supreme Court. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Armed with necessary sanctions and approvals, officials have zeroed in on Sunrakh reserve forest area in the heart of Vrindavan for the launch. And for a good reason. "This is the very spot where Lord Krishna had humbled the hydra-headed serpent-demon Kalia in a pond by stomp-dancing on his hoods. The water body still exists and next to it flows the Yamuna which, according to mythology, had turned toxic due to the poisonous emissions of the serpent," claims divisional forest officer (DFO), Mathura, Rajani Kant Mittal. The project, with due sanction from the apex court, aims at rooting out the modern-day green scourge, P Juliflora. For the last few decades, this species, a toxic foreign invader, has been silently destroying the indigenous flora and fauna, endangering the lives of cattle, rendering the soil infertile and causing an alarming spurt in malaria cases in Braj region. Considering sustained apathy towards this environmental hazard by successive regimes and the alarming situation on ground, the department, on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had sought the Supreme Court's permission to carry out an extensive eradication drive in 2023. In Aug 2023, a centrally empowered committee headed by Amarnath Shetty visited the area. After CEC's approval, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Sanjay Krishna Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia finally gave the department a go-ahead on Dec 12, 2023. "The follow-up meant enumeration of every sapling in the landscape covering 487 hectares, soil sample collection, photography and drone survey, preparation of technically feasible site-specific blueprints and working plans, assorted mandatory clearances from the govt of India, and finally budgetary allocation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Now, with all boxes ticked, we are ready for the plunge," says Mittal. "Interestingly, the inspiration behind the drive is Acharya Narayan Bhatta, a 14th century scholar and author of Shri Brajabhakti Vilas. The treatise vividly describes 137 Puranic vans spread across Mathura-Vrindavan. However, barring four, the rest have simply vanished," says principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Sunil Chaudhary. "After much research, we have successfully located 37 such forests. Again, instead of the native Krishna Kadamb, goolar, tamal, maulshree, peelu, palash, arjun, peepal and banyan, every site we found was totally overrun by Juliflora," he says. "The present drive is arguably the largest such eradication of invasive flora and eco-restoration drive in the country," claims state forest minister Arun Kumar Saxena. "The three-phased exercise will cost Rs 90 crore. It mandates not only to weed out Juliflora but also replace it with Krishna Kali species, according to the wish of the Chief Minister. The govt is also planning to take up Kanpur, Hardoi and Hathras later this year. The Forest Research Institute (FRI) is already preparing a report for us," he says. (Writer is a senior journalist)
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Rehabilitation of irrigation systems in Kurangan Pallam Odai to be carried out at ₹15 crore
The State government has accorded administrative sanction for the rehabilitation of irrigation systems in Kurangan Pallam Odai (Hanuman Nadhi) at a total cost of ₹15 crore. This project will benefit an ayacut area spread across 9,000 acres in the taluks of Modakkurichi and Kodumudi. The Odai is a rain-fed natural stream that originates at Devanampalayam near Hanumanpalli village in Modakkurichi taluk, runs for 39 km, and joins the Cauvery river at Vengambur in Kodumudi taluk. It receives water during the North-East monsoon and from seepage from the earthen Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) main canal during the irrigation period. The stream typically dries up between May and September every year, when water supply from the LBP canal is stopped. Over the past 20 years, seven check dams have been constructed across the stream to harness floodwaters and seepage. The stream's irrigation system is a lifeline for farmland in the two taluks, directly and indirectly irrigating around 9,000 acres. The Punjai Kalamangalam Canal, which originates from the Kurangan Pallam anicut at Elumathur village, runs for 12.60 km and was designed to irrigate an ayacut area of 3,840 acres. However, since these systems fall under non-system irrigation, there are no funds allocated for their regular maintenance. Only a portion of the stream was rehabilitated under the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation Project (TNIAMP) in 2018. Due to leakages, the check dams can no longer retain water, while the water spread areas have become heavily silted and overrun by Juliflora vegetation. Since the stream remains almost perennial due to seepage, people living nearby use the stream daily for bathing and other domestic activities. The foundations of bridges across the stream have also eroded at various locations and require urgent repairs to extend their lifespan by a few decades. The Water Resources Department submitted a proposal for rehabilitation works, which includes the construction of bund protection walls, desilting and strengthening of check dams, installation of silt traps, jungle clearance, construction of bathing ghats, reconstruction of canal sluices, and provision of a trough section and protection walls along the canal embankment. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced the project during his visit to Erode on December 20, 2024. A senior engineer from the Water Resources Department told The Hindu that once the works are completed, it will ensure the free flow of water, thereby restoring the stream's original water-carrying capacity. He added that the conveyance efficiency of the Punjai Kalamangalam Canal would be significantly improved through the construction of the trough section in the embankment reaches of the branch canals. Leakages in the damaged structures will also be eliminated following the reconstruction of cross-masonry structures, he added.
