The Forest Department will tighten checking at Poondi, the starting point of trekking to the Vellingiri hills, after videos of pilgrims carrying saplings of random tree species and planting them on grassland emerged.

A video showed a man from Tirunelveli with a peepal sapling planted near Andisunai at the sixth hill. Another video showed a pilgrim carrying a peepal sapling to the hills. The videos urged pilgrims to plant more saplings on the hills, in a move to make it greener.

Nature enthusiasts raised concern over the new practice as saplings of wrong species of trees might get planted in wrong terrains and forest types. They wanted the unique forest ecosystem to be protected as it is.

As per the paper ‘Systematic studies on the grasses of Velliangiri hills, a part of NilgiriBiosphere Reserve, India-with special reference to Indian endemics’ by M. Murugesan, V. Balasubramaniam and K.A.A. Kabeer, Vellingiri hills comprises scrub jungles, tropical dry deciduous forests, tropical wet evergreen forests, temperate forests (sholas) and southern montane humid grasslands.

District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj said that a peepal tree planted by a pilgrim, which was featured in a video, was removed on Wednesday.

“The Forest Department staff are screening pilgrims at the downhill,” he said.

The DFO said that pilgrims are allowed to the reserve forest area only for trekking to the seventh hill, where Lord Shiva is worshipped in self-manifested form at a height of 1,850 metres (MSL). They are not allowed to deviate from the permitted trekking route or engage in other activities, he added.