At a recent weekly grievance meeting, a group of people from Lakshmipuram panchayat submitted a memorandum to Theni Collector R.V. Shajeevana, requesting him to take steps to remove the water lettuce that had proliferated in Sengulam tank near Karuppasamy Temple on Combai Road in Theni district.

They said the invasive plant posed a health hazard to them and their children as they were being attacked by an unknown type of mosquito that left an itching sensation.. The irritation was high during winter and caused patches and bruises on the skin

The Collector and Revenue Divisional Officer (Periyakulam) Muthu Mathavan visited the village tank and took stock of the situation. It was a 40-acre tank and the entire water body with a depth of 15-18 feet was filled with water lettuce.

The Collector directed various department officials to inspect and find ways to redress the grievance. PWD engineers said heavy duty machines and bull dozers were needed to remove the water lettuce. As the cost involved was mind-boggling, there were apprehensions in taking up the project. They finally said a proposal could be prepared for government approval. The Agriculture and Horticulture department officials too visited the tank and the issue was still unseolved.

According to the elders in Lakshmipuram panchayat, the water body had always been filled with lettuce and they had never seen it dry, said 54-year-old Karthikeyan from the village.

As a last resort, the Collector and the RDO invited faculty members from Horticultural College and Research Institute in Periyakulam to study and submit a proposal on methods to clear the tank. While the officials learnt about the nuances of invasive plants from the study, they could not move forward in removing it.

The PWD engineers too endorsed that the lettuce could not be removed easily as it would shoot up swiftly. In no time and spread again. They also felt that it could not be cleaned up with machines, and manual plucking alone would be possible.

More and more study on the water body by the officials and discussions with experts in other fields of science threw some light on the issue.

The RDO said they had decided to drain the water first instead of removing the invasive plants as some results showed that the lettuce could survive without water. Knowing that it was no easy task, they worked out modalities to de-water 15 crore litres from the 40-acre tank. A rough calculation by the engineers also indicated that they had to remove nearly 4,000 truck loads of the invasive plants. Hence, the cost involved was nearly ₹40 to ₹50 lakh or even more.

An estimated work force involving 50 workers was deployed apart from the machines and heavy duty motors and bull-dozers for 40 days, he said.

The Collector gave the nod to the RDO to go ahead and they proposed to raise funds from corporate houses in Theni district to fulfil the demand of the Lakshmipuram panchayat people. As word spread, companies such as ACV Mills (P) Limited, LS Mills, LS Spinning Mills, Raj Shree Sugars, JC Tamarind and Oil Extractions, Menaka Mills, Sri Prakash Blue Metals and Thiraviyam Paramedical College and Arts and Science College, among others, volunteered to undertake the costs under the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme.

From May 28 to July 8, the team comprising Mr. Mathavan and his micro team got into the act of de-watering the tank to an adjacent lake. Two 100 HP motors that were brought in from Chennai were put to use almost for a month and it pumped out the water non-stop.

An imported machine, which was available in Kerala, was brought here with which the invasive plants were pushed out to the bunds and removed manually by the workers. The machine was in operation for about three weeks.

For their part, the villagers provided free food, water and sometimes even shelter to the workforce. After offering prayers at the renowned Karuppasamy Temple, the work was started. There were teething issues, but the presence of Mr. Madhavan almost continuously on the spot, helped solve them swiftly, Sivachandran, an engineer, said.

Future plans

Thanking the officials, the villagers said they would be ever grateful for having achieved such a Herculean task and promised that they would keep the zone litter-free. The young RDO, who was praised as a ‘task-master’ by the villagers said they would make the water body a tourist spot.

To implement the idea, the Collector said the entire outer periphery of the tank could be made a walk-way for people to go on morning stroll. Hence, they had planned to lay paver block stones for 1.5-km radius and fit solar lamps.

Interestingly, Ms. Shajeevana said the Lakshmipuram villagers had agreed to contribute a portion of the amount and the district administration would provide the remaining under the Namakku Naame scheme.

During a visit to the water body, Mr. Mathavan told this correspondent that they also made a 30-year-old sluice operational, which would facilitate in releasing water from the tank to the agricultural lands in the surrounding pockets. The workers removed over 2,000 empty liquor bottles from the defunct sluice.

The district administration was instrumental in evicting a 2.5 km long channel from encroachers for over four decades, locally known as ‘Raja Vaaikkal” near Theni bus stand, after which complaints of water-logging near the town bus stand had become a thing of the past.

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