KOLKATA — A plague is sweeping through the forests of Bihar. Thousands of trees have died in the corridor stretching from the River Ganges to the grasslands bordering Nepal.
Poor farmers in the backward state bordering West Bengal believe that the trees are dying of ‘cancer’. No one is sure of what is causing the devastation, let alone how to prevent it. “Preliminary examination suggests that the culprit is a fungus, fusarium solani, but we have to conduct further tests to confirm our suspicion, as it has never chosen trees as its targets before. “It usually attacks tomatoes, brinjals and potatoes,” said a senior Bihar Forest Department official.
Soil samples and infected pieces of stem and bark are being sent to laboratories in other states, as Bihar is ill-equipped to diagnose the blight.
The worst-affected areas are the plantations of sheesham, the mainstay of the state's lucrative furniture industry. The sheesham’s popularity appears to have been its undoing. With fully grown specimens of the right girth and shape fetching up to Rs10,000 each, its saplings have replaced other varieties in many areas in the past two decades, as farmers search for higher returns.
“The basic norms of forestry prohibit monoculture as the trees become vulnerable to outbreaks of epidemic,” said an official
Poor farmers in the backward state bordering West Bengal believe that the trees are dying of ‘cancer’. No one is sure of what is causing the devastation, let alone how to prevent it. “Preliminary examination suggests that the culprit is a fungus, fusarium solani, but we have to conduct further tests to confirm our suspicion, as it has never chosen trees as its targets before. “It usually attacks tomatoes, brinjals and potatoes,” said a senior Bihar Forest Department official.
Soil samples and infected pieces of stem and bark are being sent to laboratories in other states, as Bihar is ill-equipped to diagnose the blight.
The worst-affected areas are the plantations of sheesham, the mainstay of the state's lucrative furniture industry. The sheesham’s popularity appears to have been its undoing. With fully grown specimens of the right girth and shape fetching up to Rs10,000 each, its saplings have replaced other varieties in many areas in the past two decades, as farmers search for higher returns.
“The basic norms of forestry prohibit monoculture as the trees become vulnerable to outbreaks of epidemic,” said an official
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