Alien Plants  & Weeds

January 18, 2012, 8:09 pm 

It was most intriguing to read. Dr. U. Pethiyagodas letter with special reference to Prosop is juliflore. I fully agree with his analysis of the ecological and other positive benefits.

The desolate avid scrub in the environs of Hambantota – 70 years ago – changed ecologically with the introduction of Prosop is!

What of its history in Sri Lanka? A few plants may have been planted in the Colonial era. But it was introduced as a plantation spieces – into the avid scrubby wastelands around Hambantota, where nothing else survived in 1952/1953.

When training at Dehra Dun in India in the late 1940’s my colleague W. G. Weeraratna – George – and myself had been this species in the Arid lands of Punjab. When in 1952/53 George was Divisional Forest officer Southern Division, he introduced Prosopis to Hambantota.

When I took over from him in 1954 – planting of Prosopis was encouraged by me. Soon it spread naturally as stated by Dr. Pethiyagoda.

Recently a modern forest officer informed me that cattle died by eating Prosopis! Is this a fallacy?

Dr. Pethiyagoda’s views should be given due consideration by the authorities – before taking hasty action.

It is correct that fast spreading Prosopis had ‘blocked’ some canals in the Punjab. But modern science and technology can circumvent this.

When in 1979 – 33 year ago – a Research Paper on Bio fuel systems and Energy Farms (Dendron Power) was published by me at the East-West Centre in Hawaii, advocating the establishment of Dendron farms – Prosopis could have been one of the species involved. But 33 years ago in Sri Lanka, the then Minister Gamini Dissanayake, apparently consigned this research paper to the waste paper basket!

W. R. H. Perera.
Retired Conservator of Forests