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Deadly bug to tackle deadly weed in Delhi

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Alarmed scientists have devoted an entire week to spread awareness of the dangerous parthenium

NEW DELHI: They are deadly and come dressed in tight yellow-black jackets. No ordinary insect, this imported biological terminator -- Mexican Beetle -- packs in a lethal punch for the rouge weed parthenium.

Introduced in the Capital for field-testing, scientists are working at getting the public to work hand in glove with the `bug'. An effective biological control against the dangerous and unruly parthenium, the beetle introduced in various part of the country some time ago has brought the weed population under control without harming any other plant.

So worried were scientist with the trouble caused by this dangerous imported weed that the Jabalpur-based National Research Centre for Weed Science has devoted an entire week to spread awareness about the weed in Delhi.

"Parthenium is abundant across the country and has no natural predators. Not eaten even by cattle, the plant chokes vegetation and is a health hazard to the people. While research is on at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to come up with a cure for the allergy caused by the weed, little success has been achieved so far. The only way out is for people work with our centre to propagate and introduce the beetle to all areas that have a strong weed population,'' said the director, N.T. Yaduraju.

The Capital, which has a large population of the dangerous weed, is seeing an ascending index of health problems including dermatitis, asthma, and nasal-dermal and nasal bronchial types of diseases caused due to the weed.

Dr. Yaduraju hopes that its 22 centres across the country would will help get the general public interested and responsible enough to eliminate the weed in an environmentally friendly manner.

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