Climatic changes are taking a heavy toll on kikar and shisham trees in south western part of Punjab. Reports suggest that 86 and 82 per cent of the respective tree population of these species perished in the state during the recent years.
A research paper presented at the national-level seminar on ”Trees outside forests” organised by Punjab Forest Department in Chandigarh recently, stated that kikar and shisham are being planted along the highways, canals and drainage system. In recent years, a large-scale mortality in young and mature trees of the two trees species has been observed mostly in south western Punjab.
During the last few decades, a lot of changes in the weather conditions have been observed, which have made these plants weak and susceptible to attacks from insects and pests. During the study, meteorological data was collected from from Amritsar, Bathinda and Adampur Air Force station and quadratic model was fitted to the data on mortality of kikar and shisham trees from October 2002 to February 2005. The results were shocking: mortality of kikar was estimated to be around 86.62 per cent while in the case of shisham it was pegged at 82.35 per cent. The twin trees suffered maximum damage in Amritsar forest division followed by Garshankar and Bathinda forest divisions, according to the study. The factors causing the damage were identified as temperature, rainfall, fog days and hours and relative humidity.
Besides a large number of insect pests were found associated with these trees in the state. Termites were a common feature in all the plantation sites of both these species with root, stem and bark of these trees found particularly vulnerable to termite attack. Also a bark-eating caterpillar was noticed in road-side plantations of these trees.
But the phenomenon is not confined only to the state of Punjab alone. The twin trees have been found to suffering a similar fate in other states of the country and even in the neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. There is a strong need for collaborative research at the international level by involving research organisations of all the affected nations, the study stressed.
The research indicates that mortality is caused not only by the climate change but edaphic, pathological and entomological factors were also found to behind this phenomenon. Ganoderma is becoming a major problem in the forests and plantations. The cultural practices including sanitation practices, mixed species plantations and use of integerated pest-management practices and promotion of organic pesticides should be adopted and preferred over chemical application of fungicides, recommended the study.
Posted By Staff Reporter
in Featured, Punjab News
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