When weeds turn unwieldy..

Parthenium hysterophorus (known as Congress Grass in India) is native to West Indies, and is found in most of North and South America. It was accidentally introduced in India during the 1950s when the Congress government imported food grains from the US.

A member of the Asteraceae family, this plant is an aggressive and devastating weed that has severely affected crop yield. It spreads extremely fast as a single plant can produce 25-30,000 seeds! The enormous amount of pollen it produces can cause health problems like eczema and asthma. The main substance responsible is parthenin, which is dangerously toxic.

Though resistant to various herbicides, Parthenium can be controlled by the Mexican leaf beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata, introduced to India in 1984. It defoliates and often kills the weed, and its damage to the young flowering tops reduces seed production.

Though these beetles have been vastly helpful, they are more active during monsoons, and have been found to feed on other useful plants, such as sunflowers, whose leaves may become coated with pollen from the Parthenium weeds.

Heave ho!” cried the men, as they heaved bag after bag of wheat into the ship’s hold. Similar bags were being loaded onto a fleet of ships on the coastline, all bound for India.

“Psst!” a tiny voice whispered in the bag.

“What?” whispered back another.

“Are we safe? They might throw us out!”

“Not if we remain hidden!”

The voices came from tiny seeds that weren’t wheat grains; they knew that they were not wanted anywhere. Yet, they stayed, confident and snug, packed among the grains. Nobody knew about them, and they went unnoticed. “Hush”, said one little seed to the other. “Hide! You mustn’t be seen!”

It was the early 1950s — just a few years after India had achieved independence. India was no longer a British colony; it had become a democracy, where people decided their own future. The leaders at the helm were optimistic; there were good days ahead for Bharat.

But India was still not self-sufficient, and the main problem was food. Wheat was in severe shortage and the 6.5 tonnes of produce was not enough to feed the entire population. The farming community had its own problems- traditional farming methods, poor rainfall, crop diseases and pests.

The Congress government was in a tizzy. The need for food was immediate, and urgent. The United States arrived to help, offering food aid under its “PL-480” program. And that was what was arriving in the ships.

At India, the bags of wheat were unloaded and transported all across the country. And along with the innocent-looking grains in the bags, came the tiny unwanted visitors, teeny-weeny seeds, who had been hiding, watching and waiting, biding their time silently. And no one knew.

But very soon, these unwanted visitors began to make their presence felt. One day, as a farmer was working in his fields, he noticed strange new plants that he had never seen before.

They were small and upright, had many branches, and clusters of small whitish flowers. Puzzled, he bent down closer to have a good look at them. “A- AH CHOO!!” he sneezed.

He absent-mindedly wiped his nose and spoke to the other farmers. “Look at this! What do you think these are?”

“Oh, that”, said one. “I saw some of those in my fields too. Ignore them; nothing to worry about.”

“Seems like a harmless plant”, said another. “Its seeds must have come along with the wheat.”

But unknown to the farmers, the new plant— that had sprouted from those insignificant seeds—was a ‘weed’, called Parthenium- a plant that could choke the life out of their crops.

“Oh, the fools!” the Parthenium weeds laughed, unable to believe their good fortune. Farmers were letting
them grow! And grow they did. They grew unchecked, right alongside the wheat.

More of them appeared, not just in croplands, but also in pastures, wastelands, and even roadsides!
The trouble wasn’t very evident at first.

Over the years, the weed slowly invaded every place it could, not just in one region, but all over the country. The weed wouldn’t allow the good plants to grow, and kept robbing all the water and nutrients the farmers meant to give their real crops.

People slowly started getting skin rashes and developed allergies they had never had before.

Those who had the weeds growing near their homes had sneezing and wheezing attacks, and it took a long time for them to figure out why.

“It’s the pollen from that rotten weed!” cursed people in between sneezes, while the weeds laughed in the wind.

Meanwhile, the government had stopped importing wheat from the United States. They had instead got a great scientist to bring in better varieties of wheat from Mexico- the dwarf wheatthat yielded more produce.

This meant no more Parthenium seeds could sneak in like before!

“What will happen now?” asked one weed to the other. “Nothing. We don’t need any more seeds from our homeland to survive. We can make enough of our own!

And remember, there are no enemies strong enough to defeat us here”, the weed answered. Nothing could stop the demons, hungry for more power, more space.

Almost three decades passed, and the Parthenium weeds basked in their own glory. “No one can stop us!” thought the weeds. But suddenly one day, the weeds felt insects munching on their leaves.

“Aaah!! What’s happening?” they cried. A leaf beetle raised its head, smirking. “Have you forgotten your old enemy in the West, dear weed?” it asked. “We’ve been brought here, just to get rid of you.”

The weeds screamed as their leaves were all eaten up by the leaf beetles. The farmers, who couldn’t hear the screams, looked on satisfactorily at the result. “It was time to fight fire with fire”, they remarked. “Bringing the leaf beetle from Mexico here to kill these weeds was a good idea!”

The leaf beetles looked around lazily. They had munched up the weeds, but weren’t yet satisfied. “Ah! That looks like Parthenium there in that field”, said their leader pointing westwards.

“I can see the pollen on the leaves…” And all the beetles made their way to the sunflowers that grew in the neighbouring field…

By: Sneha Verghese