Eradication of Parthenium weed campaign, held in District Kullu

July 27th 2016, Shamshi, Kullu

Eradication of Parthenium (weed) campaign, was organised in entire Kullu area, on July 27th 2016, under the leadership of Shri B.S. Rana, Conservator cum Director, Great Himalayan National Park, Shamshi. Various organisations across Kullu area including colleges, SSB, Home guards, ITI, NHPC, Veopar Mandals, Forest dept, etc , actively participated in this campaign and helped in removing this weed from different areas.Â

More about Parthenium weed and why its important to remove it

PartheniumÂ is a noxious weed in which is endemic to north America, however now can be found in abundance in Asia, Africa and Australia. It is considered to cause allergic respiratory problems, contact dermatitis, mutagenicity in human and livestock. Due to its allelopathy, crop production is also drastically reducedÂ and because of its aggressive dominance, this weed is considered as a major threat to biodiversity.

Parthenium hysterophorusÂ is an aggressive ubiquitous annual herbaceous weed with no economic importance. Â

This alien weed is believed to have been introduced into India as contaminants in PL 480 wheat (Public Law 480 passed in 1954 to give food grains to developing countries for eliminating starvation and malnutrition) imported from the USA in the 1950s. Presently, this invasive weed is widely prevalent in India (Singh et al.Â 2008). Approximately two million hectares of land in India have been infested with this herbaceous menace (Dwivedi et al.Â 2009).

[Info source / External link :Â http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3339593/]

Following are some of the pictures from various parts of Kullu, from this campaign.Â