Lantana, a kind of poisonous weed, keeps increasingly eating into the fodder banks in the Terai pocket and other zones of Uttarakhand forests, resulting in growing number of man-animal conflicts and depletion of drinking water table. This revelation has come as a cause of grave concern for the conservationists. Among other regions, the Terai-central forest division has become vulnerable to this menace. Despite the Terai- central forest division’s continuous fight against it as the officials concerned claim, this is not yielding results in terms of stopping lantana eating into its fodder banks. Out of about 40,000 hectare geographical area of the Terai-central forest division, about 15,000 hectare land is now vulnerable to the lantana menace, as the officials concerned of the Terai-central forest division maintained. We have carried out the lantana eradication campaign in about 100 hectare area last year, said Sanatan, Divisional Forest Officer, Terai-central forest division, while talking to The Pioneer.We have set a target of removing the lantana grass from about 100 hectare land this year too, he added.At present, it is supposed that about 40,000 hectare of the total geographical area of the hill State has been affected by the same weed, destroying all the plants and other varieties of the grass. The lantana grass not just devours plants but causes depletion of natural water reservoirs in the forest areas. Thus, it harms not just mankind but wildlife too.More so, to ensure that common people participate in the drive against the lantana menace, a scheme was also launched earlier to extract oil from the lantana grass and it involved farmers and villagers, living along the forest areas. Despite this, the menace remains alive. However, in a bid to protect the forests by way of enhancing biodiversity and productivity, the lantana eradication task under the ‘cut rootstock method’ has already been taken up in many parts of Uttarakhand, including Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Dehradun, Almora and Garhwal’s Dehradun and Kedarnath areas, the officials concerned of the State forest department informed.