Water hyacinth, a native of Brazil was introduced in Calcutta Botanical Garden way back in 1895 to decorate garden ponds. Subsequently, this aquatic plant which decorated the garden ponds, village lakes, streams etc across the country. It has an alarming multiplication rate & doubles in as little as twelve days. With 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. Efforts were made to contain its growth. However, expensive mechanical cleaning proved to be ineffective & Chemical cleaning have variety of ecological disadvantageous. Water hyacinth, ‘ Eichhornia crassipes ’ is a floating aquatic plant grows in lakes, streams, ponds and even anchored in mud. It is considered as the world ’ s worst aquatic plant. As a free floating plant, all its nutrients come from water alone. It forms dense mats over the water preventing oxygenation and alters ecology of the water body. It also severely impede the flow of water in canals, thereby reducing availability of water to farmers ’ field. A water body once affected with water hyacinth degrades water quality, losses its beauty and utility. Generally it becomes the ideal place to deposit waste materials reducing depth and width. Finally, the water body itself extinct.

PROBLEMS:- Degradation of water quality Increased growth of mosquitoes Problem related to fishing Clogging of intakes of irrigation & water supply systems Extinction of water bodies Deteriorating ground water level

CONTROL METHODS

CHEMICAL CONTROL Chemical operation mainly by using herbicides can definitely destroy the grown up vicious weed. By this the weed is surely destroyed but it may cause many different losses at different levels. The chemicals in this also harm the water quality and also the aquatic life Leaving the environmental effects, rapid reproduction ability of water hyacinth defeats even this hazardous method. The method also requires skills.

MECHANICAL CONTROL Mechanical removal of water hyacinth is considered as the best short- term solution to prevent the proliferation of the weed. But it is not at all effective and economical. It is, however, labour intensive and hence expensive and only possible in relatively small areas. This method also needs trained professionals and heavy machinery for the removal of the water hyacinth.

BILOGICAL CONTROL Biological control is engagement of host specific natural enemies to reduce the population density of a noxious pet or weed. It is said to be environmentally benign, as the control agent tend to be self regulating. Control programmes are usually inexpensive due to the fact that the control agents once released in a water body will multiply themselves and hence less labour intensive. Another advantage of this method is that the agents will dissolve themselves when it is not able to locate its food.

RAY OF HOPE With the assistance of Dr. Sudhir Chipre, a local Biologist, we identified the weevil. Under the guidance and patronage of our Principal Rev. Fr. Damien Minz and our Teacher Guide Dr. Panu Haldar we conducted laboratory experiments in our school laboratory. During the course of our laboratory experiments, we studied the habits, growth, multiplication rate etc of the weevil. On successful laboratory experiments we defined the following methodology for adoption in the experiments to be conducted in an open water body.

STAGES INVOLVED  SURVEY  MASS CULTURE OF WEEVIL  CHECK WATER LEVEL & QUALITY  RELEASE OF WEEVIL  BIOLOGICAL CONTROL PROCESS

Our laboratory experiments revealed that if sufficient number of weevil is released in a water body the following will be the result: - DayAction by neochetina eichhornia 1-7eats away the leaves 8-15eats away stem 16-30eats away petioles 31-40eats away root & starts self-dissolution 41-48die off Under normal conditions, the life span of Neochetina Eichhornia is up to 300 days

Nature bodies released 16 Neochetina Eichhornia weevil cultured in our laboratory on 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, Nature bodies proudly presented a clean Banduwa Talab as...

RESULTS ACHIEVED

With sincere assurance to continue our humble efforts to combat the threat posed by water hyacinth to the socio-economic life of rural Chhattisgarh