Thaindian News

Shimla, March 12 (IANS) Lantana, a flowering exotic shrub, is the major weed that is seriously threatening the natural regeneration of native plant species in Himachal Pradesh, an official said here Saturday.

“Lantana, parthenium, ageratum and eupatorium are the major forest weed species in the state. Of these, lantana is affecting the forest biodiversity the most,” a forester told IANS.

In a written reply to a question in the state assembly Friday, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who also holds the forest portfolio, said that in the past four years, lantana was removed from 2,203 hectares of forest land in the state.

“From 2007 to 2011, the control of lantana in the forests was carried out by uprooting it manually and planting the area with fast-growing native species like bamboo, khair and amla,” Dhumal said.

He said Rs.363,47,922 were spent on planting new flora species and eradicating weeds. The funds were provided by the central government as well.

The chief minister said the weed species have spread to large areas of forests and wastelands, especially in the subtropical belt. As per the 1999-2000 survey, 136,301 hectares were covered by the weeds. Of these, lantana alone was spread over 130,000 hectares.

For eradicating the lantana, the forest department used two methods - mechanical and chemical.

Under the mechanical method, the weed was physically removed with tools like ‘monkey jack’. “This labour-intensive method has shown good results.”

However, the chemical methods like spraying glyphosate have created environmental and ecological impact.

According to a 2005 report published by the Forest Survey of India, the hill state has 14,752 sq km of forest area, 1,097 sq km of which is very densely forested.