Spreading its tentacles, an unknown disease which broke out in mountainous areas following the disaster experienced last month, has killed thousands of silk worms in three mountain districts known as Tasar silk belt in Uttarakhand.
The disease is stretching its tentacles to new areas everyday. It has left hundred of silk growers shattered. Outburst of the disease has been reported from three districts, including Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Bageshwar, known as tasar silk belt. It came to the light four days ago after silk growers noticed death of large number of silkworms in the silk farms in this region. Harried silk growers informed the State Silk Directorate that took efforts to identify the disease by sending some of its experts. Its efforts, however, failed to get desired results.
Seeing no way out, the department has called a team of experts from Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Ranchi, in order to identify the disease that has probably been caused by a virus. The team is to reach here on June 16. The experts would collect samples from the affected farms and would analyse them to identify the disease.
The experts would suggest measures to stop spread of the disease. It may take two-three days. The mysterious disease has affected around 500 silk growers who depend upon silk production for their livelihood. After disaster, it is second shocker to the distressed silk growers.
State Silk department director Sudhir Mohan Sharma confirmed the mysterious disease outbreak in the tasar silk belt. “Outbreak of mysterious disease has caused death of thousands of tasar silk worms in Rudrparayag, Chamoli and Bageshwar. A team of experts has been called from Ranchi to decode cause of the disease,” Sharma said.
He said that virus may have caused the disease since it was spreading one area to another in an accelerated way. “It seems that virus multiplies itself in the climatic conditions which emerged after the disaster,” Sharma said, adding that death rate of tasar silk worms was alarming and as measure to check its spread, the department sought services of experts.
Sharma revealed that the disease would also result in tremendous downfall in tasar silk production during this year. Simultaneously, it will pose a challenge before the department to preserve the ‘seed’ of the silk. So, checking spread of the disease was a challenge for the department since the cause of the disease was not clear yet. Some farms have reported thousands of deaths of silk worms per day. In the three districts, the disease will also affect rural economy. It is worth mentioning here that Uttarakhand is the State that enjoys conducive climatic condition for all five type of silk varieties, including tropical tasar, muga, eri and mulberry silk.