First detected in Karnataka only in May this year, the fall armyworm, a native of the Americas, has already spread as far as West Bengal and Gujarat, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Priyanka Pulla reports on the deficiencies in India’s quarantine regime It is a hot day in September, and two men are prising open the leaves of maize in a field in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur district. The crop is two months away from being harvested, but the leaves look diseased. Some have streaks of white on them, while others are peppered with holes. Soon, one of the men, entomologist Arakalagud Nanjundaiah Shylesha, spies the culprit behind these holes — a small greenish-brown worm with dark lines along
Tag: West Bengal
Coringa mangroves to emulate Sundarbans in bee keeping
It’s a busy bee operation. The Forest department, with the UNDP-GEF-EGREE (United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility-East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem) Foundation, has launched a multi-purpose operation to increase honeybee population in the Coringa mangroves here. It will train women in villages abutting the mangroves in bee keeping, ensuring their livelihood and reducing dependency on the mangrove forest in a phased manner.Bee bustersUnlike the Sundarbans in West Bengal and Bhitarkanika mangroves in Odisha, Coringa has been lagging in terms of honey production owing to deforestation coupled with the use of pesticides in the abutting farms and fish tanks.Money in honeyAccording to statistics, the largest mangrove Sundarbans produce about 1.1 lakh kg of honey every year, while the third largest