Ooty: The Nilgiris Documentation Centre (NDC), an NGO here, alleged that hazardous grass is being promoted dubiously in the Nilgiris, that may play havoc with the local hill ecology in future. It also wrote to the National Biodiversity Authority to check this practice the in Nilgiris.
Director of NDC and noted environmental activist, Dharmalingam Venugopal, said here that now there is a deliberate campaign in the Nilgiris to propagate a hazardous grass belonging to the family Chrysopogon as a native species and eco-friendly.
It is being spear-headed by a private individual and followed by uninformed social service organizations, schools and the administration. This grass is nothing, but a variety of the common ‘Vetiver’ in Tamil.
According to the Nilgiris Gazetteer of 1906, this grass is not among the 38 varieties of indigenous grasses listed. Actually, this grass appears to be a weed on the hills.
According to the Report 'Twenty-five Years Research on Soil and Water Conservation in Southern Hilly High Rainfall Regions' by erstwhile Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Ootacamund, when native grass is degraded either due to burning or over-grazing, grass like vetiver take their place.
However, they do not survive in the high altitudes of Nilgiris, he noted. The World Bank which once recommended this plant for checking soil erosion in developing countries, stated in its report ‘Vetiver Grass: A Thin Green Line Against Erosion’ that “From experiences in New Zealand and southern England it appears that vetiver will succeed only where the sun is hot and bright.”
In the Nilgiris too, the grass was tried as a soil binder on slopes on road margins, but was given up.
Experiments in China have shown that 'vetiver' roots attract rats and snakes.
“In the Nilgiris, the situation could be more serious with many wild animals including wild boars freely roaming the habitations,” he pointed out and added that the Nilgiris district administration should investigate this serious case of misrepresentation of a scientific issue, and take suitable action to end this diabolical plot.
