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.

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