The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Teak forests facing pest attack

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Teak forests facing pest attack

S. Harpal Singh

Larvae feed voraciously on the chlorophyll present in the leaves

Green loss: A teak tree near Mavala village rendered brown after the insect devoured its green leaves.

ADILABAD: The ’Abia pleura’ pestilence in teak trees has started showing in Adilabad district, thanks to the comparatively colder weather prevailing for the past few days. Such weather is very conducive for the dormant larvae of this insect to become active at one point, and spread throughout the five lakh hectares of teak forest in the district within a span of two months.

The green coloured larvae, feed voraciously on tender green leaves of teak trees leaving behind just the veins. The tree takes on a brown colour for the next two to three months, before the pestilence ends on its own. The voracious nature of Abia pleura larvae can be compared to that of the deadly Piranha fish. In a matter of few minutes the larvae feed on all the chlorophyll present in the green leaves on the tree.

Flourish

The pest attack makes its appearance during mid July. However, very less rainfall during the corresponding period this year kept the weather conditions rather hot which was unsuitable for the larvae to break out. Cool weather and good rainfall over the last few days has seen the Abia pleura starting to flourish in the teak forests.

Teak trees have started going brown in the Mavala range close to Adilabad town. It will soon spread to the Seetagondi ghats and beyond, in a matter of days covering the entire forest area by mid September.

Debatable

Forest officials consider the effect of pestilence in teak trees debatable. Some of officials contend that the growth rings in a given tree are not affected to a large extent because of the shorter duration of the pestilence.

However, the loss suffered by the tree during this two to three month period remains to be quantified. There are hardly any preventive measures that can be undertaken with regard to the pestilence, because it affects natural forests in very vast areas.

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