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Covid, Compulsion coupled with Carelessness gave Termites A Free run to Ruin JNU Lab

By G. K. Mahapatro and M. Murari

 

Days are ahead, more and more awareness, news; blogs are popping up on any tangible issue in our day-to-day life, inclusive say the termite invasion in research laboratories, even. The digital revolution has immensely empowered the citizens and common people to share their woes, as citizen journalists. YouTube, blogs, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook– all such digital tools played a major role in this, besides the conventional newspapers/magazines.


Readers can view the following links, clips, news for getting more information on this grave issue. Be aware, who knows, the next attack by termites is in your premises, lab or your near and dear neighbors’?


The Youtube clip


Very lucidly, this demonstrates the damage caused by termites in the JNU lab, depicting the plight of Ph.D. scholars. This is visited by 2.7K as of today (11-Dec 2020).


News Clips (The Indian Express, Times of India, On 7-Dec, 2020)




Valuable research activities of students, Ph.D. scholars were destroyed by termite infestation at JNU’s TL/OSL/OSL laboratory. The lab was set up on the investigation of the earth’s climate, unique in the country, which was compelled to shut in March this year, due to the corona pandemic. It is alleged that this was left unattended, and as such students were not allowed to the set-up, termites got a free run to ruin everything, their hard toiled research samples.

Journals stored in shelf eaten by termites: A serious problem in Delhi (03 Dec. 2014))


We are shortly coming out with termite management advisories for such eventualities. Please visit our web portal https://www.termitexpert.in/ (Main menu bar: Management: Construction). We detailed therein, the control aspects for rural structures, urban-, agricultural-, dams/dykes, and others. We hope, the info will be useful. During the tenure of my Nodal Officer of Termite Control, in IARI Main Campus (2009-2016), we dealt with some laboratories for termite proofing, both pre-construction and post-construction scenario, Central Museum of IARI (Library Building), NBPGR Complex, and many other structural set-ups. Termite control is quite a tricky affair, demands detailed planning and execution, for a successful implementation.


 

Dr. G. K. Mahapatro is Head and Principal Scientist at ICAR-IARI Regional Station, Pune, Maharastra. He is an expert in toxicology and termite management.


Mr. M. Murari is a research scholar working at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.

 

Disclaimer: The contents, style, language, plagiarism, references, mention of any products if any, etc., are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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