BATOMARI (DHAKUAKHANA), Dec 6 - Dhakuakhana subdivision in Lakhimpur district is a traditional bastion of muga silk rearing, which is found only in this part of the world.
Over the years, thousands of households have been rearing muga silkworms (Antheraea assamensis) and producing the exotic muga silk textiles by adopting traditional and time-tested local methods. Since this silk worm rearing industry depends on age-old traditional practices based on favourable local bio-diversity, hence extension of other plantation activities in this area have significantly affected muga silk production.
To cite an example, Madhupur Tea Estate, a tea garden located in this muga-endemic region is reportedly responsible for the death of millions of muga silkworms, claimed Jeetul Saikia, a national award-winning muga exponent and leading agricultural entrepreneur from Batomari, Dhakuakhana.
Use of pesticides in the aforementioned tea garden has adversely affected the local bio-diversity, thereby causing damage of larva and cocoons of muga silkworms reared by the locals here, he rued.
Tea gardens across India use pesticides and herbicides which contain highly or moderately hazardous toxic chemicals as classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to Jeetul Saikia, the tea gardens in Assam use approximately 28,000 metric tons of pesticides and herbicides annually, which severely affects the bio-diversity of the State.
According to Saikia, pesticides like oregano phosphates and systematic phosphates cause damage to plants and other insects in the surrounding areas as well. The pesticides sprayed in Madhupur Tea Estate, besides other local tea plantations, are dispersed through the air and reach the nearby Somonis, the host plants used for rearing muga silkworms, and subsequently kills the silkworms.
The sprayed pesticides also accumulate on the leaves of Som (Machilus bombycina) trees, the host plant of the muga silkworms. This results in the silkworms eventually producing damaged cocoons after consumption of the infected leaves. A Greenpeace report earlier found 34 different pesticides which contained highly hazardous monocrotophos and neoniconitoid insecticides such as imidacloprid (associated with reproductive or developmental impact in animals, as well as affecting bees and other beneficial insects) used in the Indian tea industry.
Significantly, it may be recalled that most of the pesticides used in the tea plantations are not even registered for use in the cultivation of tea in India. The frequent use of DDT, despite the fact that it is no longer registered for use in agriculture in India and was banned for such applications as long back as 1989, is also undermining the Indian Insecticide Act of 1968 and the Green Tribunal of 2010.
The Dhakuakhana region, where around 10,000 families are engaged in the traditional rearing and production of muga silkworms, earlier produced around 2 lakh muga cocoons per hectare annually. Sadly enough, the production figure at present has declined to 57,000 cocoons per hectare annually due to this disturbance caused by the use of pesticides in the nearby tea plantations.
Additionally, Saikia also attributed some other factors for the steep decline in muga sikworm production in the Dhakuakhana region. He blamed the adoption of mono-culture by the State Sericulture Department, i.e., of planting exclusive som trees for the muga silkworms, which has totally destroyed the green canopy system of rain forests. The rampant felling of tall trees and clearing of all other natural vegetation for som plantation has caused drastic increase in temperature, which in the final analysis is not conducive for rearing muga silkworms.
Wild Silk North East, an NGO run by Saikia, had placed a logical demand before the State Government to declare Dhakuakhana region as a �Muga Endemic Zone� for the protection of this unique natural fabric and its practice. But as is the norm in this part of the world, no response has been forthcoming from the concerned departments, lamented Saikia.
Official declaration of muga endemic zone would have acted as an effective tool to ban introduction of other economic activities like tea plantation, brick industries and other pollutants that affect muga production, especially in the Dhakuakhana area.