TTD to replace Acacia with traditional plants

Tirumala: To preserve and protect the flora and biodiversity in the Seshachala forest ranges, the TTD executive officer AV Dharma Reddy on Wednesday urged the officials concerned to speed up the programme of replacing the Acacia with traditional plants.

Addressing a review meeting at the conference hall of the TTD administrative building in Tirupati on Wednesday, he directed officials to extend the pilot project of substituting the Acacia in one hectare of land to larger tracts in the forest belt in a phased manner and submit a comprehensive report on the programme.

TTD took up the removal of Acacia plants proved inimical to the growth of other plants, thus affecting biodiversity on the hills.

Among others, he instructed officials to take up beautification of Tirumala roads to give a pleasant atmosphere to devotees, speed up the Tarigonda Vengamamba Brindavanam works, digitisation of old TTD records and destroy the rest of unwanted ones, complete the gold lacing works of Sri Govinda Raja Swamy temple Gopura by October and a comprehensive action plan to transform the Goshala in Tirupati on experts recommendation into a role model institution. Later, the TTD EO reviewed the Gopuja programme underway in TTD local temples and made valuable suggestions to officials. TTD JEOs Sada Bhargavi, Veerabrahmam, CVSO Narasimha Kishore, FA& CAO O Balaji, Chief Engineer Nageswara Rao and others were present.