Drips to breathe life into dying Pillalamarri may prove lethal

HYDERABAD: Pillalamarri, one of the five greatest banyan trees of India, seems to be on its deathbed. Notwithstanding the claims of officials that the recent 'injection' of chlorpyrifos has rejuvenated the 700-year-old tree in Mahbubnagar, the trunks have been eaten away by white ants. In fact, the use of chlorpyrifos without a pilot research on the banyan may prove to be harmful to the tree itself, warn experts.
A closer inspection of the tree trunks reveals a high level of infestation by termites or white ants. The branches too are infested. Some of them have turned hollow while a few branches are in different stages of withering. Even the parts of the tree outside the compound wall of the Pillalamarri park are infested with white ants.

District and forest officials have launched several measures to keep the grand old banyan tree alive, but the efforts seem to have come too late. Till one of the trunks of the great banyan fell after white ants made it hollow, the tree and the land where it stands were under the control of the tourism government. It was hurriedly handed over to the forest department six months ago, after which the forest teams began working to revive the tree.

But they "injected" harmful chemical chlorpyrifos into the branches through "saline bottles" without conducting a scientific study on its harmful impact on the tree and the other lifeforms it supports. Forest officials claim that the tree is generating new foliage after the chlorpyrifos treatment as the insecticide has killed the termites. But experts say the insecticide may have controlled the termite infection to a certain extent, but the damage it would cause to the banyan tree as well as birds, beneficial insects and small mammals is irreparable.

PK Jha, principal chief conservator of forests, Telangana, told STOI that chlorpyrifos poisoning the plant tissue is not true. "The intention is to kill the white ants, which have formed a colony. You can refer to the fact that the insects and pests damaging the coconut tree flowers are controlled by applying chlorpyrifos solution after exposing active roots," he said.

Mahbubnagar district forest officer (DFO) Ch Ganga Reddy said since the chemical was given in a highly diluted form, there was no danger to the tree or other species.

On the other hand, research studies conducted elsewhere say that chlorpyrifos is taken up by trees as a nutrient solution leading to accumulation of significant amounts of the harmful chemical in the plant tissue.