Neem Trees Under Attack

What happens when the doctor falls ill? Who will treat the patients?

Neem- sturdiest of the trees- is wilting and dying! Barely four months after our previous story, the Neem in Secunderabad is under attack again. Neem which has medicinal properties, is itself under threat! Dieback is back again! What will happen to the 'patients' of Neem?

What is Dieback? Please read our earlier story of April-23 below.

Neem trees in Telangana region are under severe attack! Not by unscrupulous builders but by a disease.

Ghumakkad has observed hundreds of large Neem trees in Secunderabad wilting and drying up in the past few days! Otherwise a robust species, it was very distressing to see a healthy Neem tree suddenly drying up. Almost on the verge of dying as if attacked by a cancer! See the picture below. 

Distressing Sight

During my morning golf today, it was very distressing to see tree after tree attacked by dieback disease. The dried up trees stuck out as a sore thumb on an otherwise green tapestry of the golf course! See the pictures below.

Dieback Disease

Google search led me to an earlier report in The Hindu. The trees are under attack by a fungal infection called 'dieback' disease having the scientific name Phomopsis azadirachtae. The disease was first noticed near Dehradun in 1990s. In Telangana it was first reported in 2019. In 2022 it had affected thousands of trees. It has resurfaced this year too. "The dieback disease affects leaves, twigs and the inflorescence of neem trees of all ages and it causes almost 100% loss of fruit production in severely infected trees", says Prof Jagadeesh Batthula in the above report. We have observed 100% loss of the fruit in this season. See the pictures below.

How to Control the Disease

Being large trees, spraying of fungicides is very difficult. The other way is to cut the affected twigs and branches, collect it in a pit and spray the fungicide. Even then it is difficult to control the disease as the fungus is airborne. It is reported that some NGOs have come forward to control the Dieback disease.

We only hope that the affected trees bounce back. Otherwise, it amounts to loosing tens of thousands of healthy Neem trees in one season with no regeneration as the fruits and seeds, have been destroyed by the fungal attack forever!

We also hope some of our plant biologist readers will shed some more light on this phenomenon and suggest what can individual citizens do to control this dreaded disease. And save the environment! Otherwise, the sunrise on the golf course would not be the same again!

Do share your observations in the area around you if the dreaded dieback disease has attacked the Neem trees there!

Thanks for browsing

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 21st April 2023

Postscript

30th April 2023: Readers from many regions across India responded to this post. Summary of their observations below:

• Northern India, Karnataka, Kerala, coastal Andhra- not affected by the fungal infection on Neem trees
• Telangana and Goa- severely affected.

During last 10 days, Hyderabad/Secunderabad received heavy rains. This unseasonal rain seems to have washed away the fungal infection from many trees. Perhaps, Nature's own way of healing!

12th Nov 23: This is what the Indian Express Hyderabad edition wrote about the Dieback damage to the Neem trees in Telangana.

#neem #dieback #treedisease #twigblight #fungusattack #Phomopsisazadirachtae #telangana #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #nature #cancer

CDs On A Mango Tree

What are the CDs doing on a mango tree?

Some weird decoration by tech-gardeners?

Or, some IT nerds gone crazy?

Actually, none of that!

The CDs have been hung on the mango trees to keep the langur away from attacking the mango crop! Simple.

Yes, the idea seems to work. First time Ghumakkad saw it in Uttarakhand while driving to Munsiyari. The house owner was finding it difficult to save the fruits from the marauding monkeys on a forested hillside. The shining CDs did the trick! That was in May-2019. Now four years down the line, it worked again in Secunderabad. Different monkeys, different fruit trees, different climate, yet the concept works! See the pictures and a short video clip below.

Here is a short video clip shot on our terrace showing the CDs protecting the fruits on both the mango and guava trees.

Of course, while driving on highways in India, CDs have a different connotation as seen from the picture below. The picture quizzed the readers in the 18th edition of online contest Kaun Banega Ghumakkad KBG-18 . CDs in road side dhabas ढाबा  (roadside eatery) could contain unwanted stuff. But no, don't be so naughty! See the remarks in the picture below.

More than 100 correct responses were received for KBG-18 Contest. You may browse the story linked below.

CD is Cold Drink - The highway eateries terminology!

So, if you have a home garden and the monkeys are a menace, try hanging some CDs from the branches of the tree. It should be free hanging so that it rotates with wind. It startles the monkeys and keeps them away. 

Requesting our zoologist-readers to educate us how it works? Hope it does not cause any other harm to the marauding monkeys.

More stories from Ghumakkad on the world around us!

Thanks for browsing

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 5th April 2023/ Secunderabad

Postscript: Readers from different parts of the world shared their experiences on above story. Excerpts:

5th April: Sujata Das from Canada writes: "We have been doing this CD track for years to protect our cherries, plums, and peaches from long-beak birds. And it works for birds."

5th April: J Ramamoorty from Hyderabad writes:  "In New Delhi's South Block,  two wheeler owners keep bricks on the two seats for the same reason i.e. to protect the seats being torn by the monkeys!"

5th April: Pramod Lakhotia from Germany writes: "In Germany we have no monkeys free jumping around. Hence no problem. But birds do make our Cherries a problem and we are using CDs on the trees effectively."

30th April: It has been close to four weeks since we hung the CDs on our fruit trees in home garden. Apart from the langurs, the CDs have kept the bats and the birds away so far.

#monkeymenace #maraudingmonkeys #langursinthegarden #homegardening #savingthemangoes #homeremedy #CDs #CDsonamnagotree #CDstostartlethelonkeys #ewaste #upcycling #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh