Invasion of Prosopis juliflora:Still a Valuable Species in Arid and Coastal Areas of Tamil Nadu, India

Prosopis juliflora plays a leading role in preventing erosion caused, mainly due to sea water in coastal areas and afforestation, in arid and semi-arid lands. Its capability of growing on saline areas and in arid and semi-arid conditions qualifies them suitable for this purpose. This species fits well into the agroforestry system for controlling desertification, soil erosion, sand dunes, improve fertiliser status, provide fuel energy sources, used in construction timber and furniture wood. It also provide nutritional supplement to humans and promote honey production. This plant can withstand high temperature, less water and high saline land. In India, Prosopis juliflora is widely seen across in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Tamilnadu.

Recently in Tamilnadu, there were lot of public protestation due to which the recent court orders issued a complete eradication of these species. This has now become a growing concern on this tree, which has invaded and become an obnoxious weed as this species had earlier proved a blessing for the dwellers of degraded wasteland and barren coastal areas which was prone for desertification, sand erosion and tsunami threat. The speciality of these species ischolar_mains can go nearly up to 175 ft (53.5 mts) and access to water ways and deplete the ground water level. Hence, there is a need for a holistic study, to carry out with the help of spatial management system software such as Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing techniques for studying the cause of ground water depletion in arid and semi-arid regions of Tamilnadu and sea water intrusion in coastal regions of Tamilnadu. Based on this, a methodology is formulated to identify the species even in more detailed way, to study the cause of sea water intrusion especially in these areas, due to these species.