A revolutionary know-how developed by the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) can rework the best way teak plantations are shielded from their most infamous pest – the teak defoliator moth (Hyblaea puera). The institute has efficiently recognized, mass-produced and patented a naturally occurring virus, Hyblaea puera Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus (HpNPV), which causes deadly an infection within the pest larvae and prevents widespread defoliation of teak bushes.
For many years, the teak defoliator has wreaked havoc in plantations, stripping total forests of their foliage as much as six occasions a 12 months, weakening bushes and inflicting vital loss in timber yield. “When the larvae attack, the tree spends its energy regenerating leaves instead of growing. It’s a huge invisible loss,” explains T.V. Sajeev, Principal Scientist at KFRI.
Conventional management strategies comparable to aerial spraying of chemical pesticides had been tried — at Konni in Kerala and Barnavappara in Madhya Pradesh — inviting protests resulting from environmental considerations. The KFRI even introduced a paper on the 1980 Forestry Conference at Dehradun titled ‘The problem of teak defoliator: to spray or not to spray?’
Economic loss
KFRI’s sustained analysis confirmed that the financial loss resulting from teak defoliators is staggering: an estimated 3 cubic metres of wooden per hectare yearly, translating to ₹562.5 crore loss in Kerala and ₹12,525 crore in India. The institute screened the pest’s pure enemies and zeroed in on HpNPV, a virus that’s totally host-specific, focusing on solely the teak defoliator larvae, and thus fully protected for the forest ecosystem.
“The beauty of the virus is in how it works,” mentioned Dr. Sajeev. “It multiplies at least a trillion times inside a single larva. When the body breaks open, it releases huge quantities of inoculum. Even if the infection is sub-lethal, the virus stays in the insect, gets passed on to the next generation, and proves lethal then.”
With a transparent understanding of the pest’s life cycle, HpNPV can be utilized throughout early-stage outbreaks to stop bigger infestations.
Field trials at Nilambur in Malappuram, seen as India’s cradle of teak, had been a hit. KFRI has already transferred the know-how for outbreak monitoring and virus software to the Forest division. “Now it’s up to the department to formally adopt the technology,” mentioned Dr. Sajeev.
Export potential
What makes this innovation extra vital is that most of the 64 nations now cultivating teak — from its native vary of simply 4 (India, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand) — have banned chemical pesticide use. This opens up a large export potential for the eco-friendly HpNPV know-how.
KFRI will showcase the HpNPV answer on the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) R&D Summit 2025, to be held on August 7 in Thiruvananthapuram, positioning it as a scalable, sustainable mannequin for forestry administration throughout the globe.
