With its slender leaves and sweet-smelling pods, Prosopis seems harmless, but it is one of India’s toughest woody invaders. For instance, the Little Rann of Kutch, much like the wider salt desert, is a stark and unforgiving landscape. The land lies flat, white and desolate, with only a few hardy shrubs managing to survive. The soil is highly saline, and water is scarce. Yet beneath this harshness, something remarkable is unfolding. Each year, undeterred by the brutal conditions, a certain shrub, more accurately, a tree, steadily pushes its boundaries. And Prosopis juliflora, the species in question, is not even native to the region.
A study published in National Academy Science Letters in 2014, examining the nearly 5,000 sq km Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary, the only sanctuary dedicated to this endangered species, found that Prosopis juliflora had been spreading at an alarming rate. In the 1990s, when the area was believed to be wetter, the tree advanced across the landscape at about 25 sq km per year. Although the pace has slowed to roughly 1.95 sq km in recent years, its overall expansion remains remarkably rapid.
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