Posted by Abhay ABHAY
on 5/29/2001, 8:10 am
INFORMATION ON CONGRESS WEED IS NOW IN INTERNET
Congress weed is one of the ten worst weeds of the world. Congress weed is harmful to humabeings, crops and animals. It is a curse for bio-diversify. The scientific name of congress weed is Parthenium hysterophorus. It is also known as Chatak chandani, White top, Ramphool etc. Congress grass is not a native to India and it has came with imported grains during fifties of last century. The scientific studies have revealed that Congress weed is harmful to humanbeings. the flowers of Congress weed emits millions of pollens. These pollens cause asthama, skin diseases and mental depression in humabeings. Small hairs present on the stem of congress weed when came in contact with humanbeings and animals, causes different types of lethal skin diseases. You will be suprised to know that many farmers suffering from Parthenium borne skin troubles have committed suicide. The roots of Congress weed secrete many lethal chemicals harmful to other plants present in vicinity. These chemicals are responsible for fast spread of this weed. These chemicals are killing the valuable medicinal plants present in our forests. Earlier Congress weed infestation was limited to wastelands but now it is becoming field weed and competiting our crops for light, moisture and nutrient and decreasing the production. Daily thousands of farmers and their cuttles are coming in contact of this obnoxious weed.
Its spread in forests, is becoming a problem for wildlife. It is hard to estimate that daily upto what extent wildlife is damaged by this weed. Animals generally donot prefer this weed. If taken by mistake, it may be lethal to them. In Australia, thousands rupees worth meat got infected by Congress weed. In one year, there are four generations of Congress weed and each plant produces more than 25,000 seeds. The origin of this weed is America. Due to absence of natural enemies, it is spreading very rapidly. Management of Congress weed is not a easy task. Generally people get aware when this weed is in flowering stage. But this stage is very late to start its management. Disturbing flowering plant means increasing the spread of seeds. Many agrochemicals are available that can control this weed, but these chemicals are not ecofriendly and many scientific studies showed that it is not advisable to solve one problem by creating another problem i.e. pollution. Research on natural enemies are in progress but it wiil require many years to come in commercial level.
It is a bitter truth that very few people are aware of harmful effects of this handsome looking plant. Australlian and American governments are trying hard to aware their people about this obnoxious weed but the efforts are not enough. Our government is not taking any big step for awareness campaign. Even not much published literatures are available on this weed in our country. Very few scientists around the world are working only on Congress weed. There is a lack of coordination among these scientists. To solve this problem and to provide a discussion forum to scientists, researchers, students, farmers, general public etc. associated with Congress weed, a news group named International Parthenium Research News Group (IPRNG) was formed on 9th may 2000. This newsgroup is founded by Raipur based young agriculture scientist Pankaj Oudhia. This news group has launched a website in Internet. In this site latest information regarding all aspets of Congress weed are included. The address of this website is www.IPRNG.org. Pankaj Oudhia is working on Congress weed eradication programme since 1992. To aware the people about the identification, harm and management of this obnoxious weed, he has formed a society named Society for Parthenium Management (SOPAM). This is a non-political and non-profitable registered nongovernmental organisaiton which is awaring the people with the help of campaign called WAP (War Against Parthenium). He has also written a book on Congress weed. He has more than 30 research papers on Parthenium published in national and international journals in his credit. When he kept the proposal to form International Parthenium Research News Group among the scientists around the world. Almost every one welcomed this proposal.
The Congress weed website is divided into many informative section. Articles on Congress weed with colored photographs have been added in 'Articles and works' section of website. These articles have been written by eminent scientists around the world. In front page of website, short but informative note on Congress weed has been added. In this page, the name and contact addresses of societies working on this weed are given. In 'Contribution' section, a lot of space is allocated for scientists, researchers, farmers etc. for discussion. Anybody can put his/her question in this section. This section is divided according to the months. Every new month have separate page. Old messages are available in archieves, Parthenium researchers and students specially from underdeveloped countries most frequently visit to 'Parthenium references' section of this website. In this section the titles of research papers, authors and journals name have been given. This page is regularly updated. In this page, the list of books published on Congress weed around the world is also given. Some bare facts about this obnoxious weed has been added in 'Bare facts' setion ofthis website. The reasons behind different names of Congress weeds are also given in this section. In 'Picture Gallery' section, a lot of coloured photographs of different aspects of Parthenium and its management have been added. The main attractions of this section are the photographs of Zygogramma insect and photograph of patient suffering from Parthenium borne skin disease. To provide the latest news on Congress weed and persons associated with it, 'Parthenium News' section has been created. One of the main attractions of this website is 'Directory of Parthenium Scientists'. In this unique directory not only the name and addresses of Parthenium scientists but also their phone, fax, e-mail addresses etc. are given. Any interested person can directly send message to any concerned scientists by using e-mail of the site directly.
This website has been constructed by Pankaj Oudhia by his own expenses. Any person siting in any corner of the world can collect information and download it from this site without paying any charges. Pankaj Oudhia has invested thousands of rupees in this website. Daily thousand of researchers, students, scientists, farmers and also patients suffering from harmful effects of this weed visit this website. Today many Indian farmers are taking interest in Internet. Pankaj oudhia is now planning to make Hindi addition of this website. He is not satisfied by making this informative site, now he is thinking how to motivate the people to visit this site.
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