Biological Removal Of Water Hyacinthby | 23-07-2012 18:56 |
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 An amazing effort by Eco-Warriors of Chattisgarh, India Water hyacinth, a native of Brazil was introduced in Calcutta Botanical Garden to decorate garden ponds. It has an alarming multiplication rate. This ornamental aquatic plant gradually proved to be a menace. It even now, in addition to various socio-economical problems, affects irrigation, fisheries, water transport etc. During a Biodiversity seminar Dr. Sudhir Chipre a local biologist explained to us about the weevil & its effects on weeds. We used the weevil as an agent for the biological removal of the weed.Our efforts scientifically proved that Neochetina Eichhornia is effective to clean vicious aquatic weed. As Water Hyacinth have an alarming multiplicative rate it is hard to control & the Government authorities were also unable to find a proper solution to stop this weed. Due to this weed many ponds in & around our city had lost their existence & many others were still under threat. So in the year 2006 we had started working on this project and adjacently we had also entered the project in the Volvo Adventure Global Competition. From then we have worked with our biological remedy and have saved many ponds from losing their Existence. • To discourage the use of old & ineffective methods of removal of the Vicious Weed from the Ponds which were also very expensive. • To introduce a new & improved method for the removal of Water Hyacinth weed. • to inform the residents living around the pond about the various problems they would face if the Water Hyacinth persisted there. • Training and informing the students about the handling & culture of the weevil. We had observed the different ponds around our city & found that most of the ponds were infested with water hyacinth. We had also calculated & made a comparative study between the number of ponds infested with the weed & the other which are free from this problem. We had found out about the other removal methods of Water Hyacinth which were not only costly but they were also ineffective. We had worked with Dr. Sudhir Chipre a local biologist about the entire life circle & methods of culture of the weevil Neochetina Eichhornia • We had implemented this project at the Check Dam in our city which was heavily infested with this weed. • We had observed the activity of the weevil on the water hyacinth & the time it takes to completely remove it. • We had also conducted Workshops & awareness programs for students & people about the losses they would face if a particular water source would be infested with water hyacinth. • If the weevil could completely remove this problem then this project could be easily carried out by any person & expertise is also not required for this process. Various processes like irrigation; transportation etc which could not be carried out previously is now resumed perfectly. Nature bodies released 16 Neochetina Eichhornia weevil cultured in our laboratory on at the Check Dam. The biological agent gave the following results :- # in the first week almost the entire leaves were eaten away # in the second week biological agent started eating steam # in the third and fourth week it eaten away petioles, and # in the fifth week it eaten away the roots. Finally we proudly present a cleared Check dam free of the Weed. |
