Mulberry plantations, running into thousands of hectares in and around Bangalore, are facing near extinction?thanks to unbridled real estate activity largely on account of IT-ITeS development. As a result, silk production in Karnataka has slipped to abysmal levels, forcing many units to shut shop.

Bangalore and Mysore are two major mulberry growing regions in Karnataka, the state that once accounted for 60% of the country?s silk production and exports. Now the share is down to 37%, sounding the death knell for the industry, which once generated thousands of jobs.

According to statistics available with the Central Silk Board (CSB), mulberry acreage in the state stood at 1.66 lakh hectare in 1998-99 before Bangalore witnessed the IT boom. It declined by half to 0.88 lakh hectare in 2002-03 and further to 0.77 lakh hectare in 2008-09.

Karnataka?s mulberry acreage loss has reflected gravely in the overall national sericulture picture as well. The land parcel under mulberry cultivation across the country declined to 1.78 lakh hectare in 2008-09 from 2.70 lakh hectare in 1998-99. The state?s raw silk production has shrunk to 7,360 tonne in 2009-10, compared to 9,000 tonne in the preceding years.

On the other hand, Karnataka has been concentrating on putting Bangalore on the global IT map, by attracting global investments. According to latest statistics available, Karnataka?s IT exports stood at Rs 71,000 crore, accounting for nearly one-third of India?s IT exports. Around 3,000 IT/BPO companies are operating in and around Bangalore, triggering huge real estate development.

Most parts of Electronic City, the so called silicon valley of India that located in the stretch between Bangalore and Hosur, has been created in the region once known as mulberry belt, said H Hanumanthappa, chairman of CSB, the government-owned apex body of the Indian silk industry.

He said around 36,000 hectare under mulberry cultivation around the Bangalore-Kolar belt has been sold by farmers after the IT boom. Around 30,000 agricultural families involved with mulberry cultivation left the practice to seek other streams of revenue. ?The CSB is taking steps to improve raw silk productivity by adopting new technologies,? said Hanumanthappa.

Mulberry leaves are the main feed for silk worms to develop cocoon, from which reelers spin the yarn to produce silk fabric.

N Srinivasa Murthy, president of Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), who had a silk products manufacturing unit earlier, said he had shut down his unit due to shortage of quality raw silk.

Murthy owned a factory with 100 employees in Bangalore to produce silk sarees and cloth under the brand ?Akshaya? to export to European countries and the US. After IT units mushrooming around Bangalore, he said the land cost shot up manifold while labour shortage intensified. S Sathish, a mulberry farmer turned shopping complex owner in Attibele village near Bangalore, said a major tract of mulberry acreage in several villages around Bangalore have been destroyed, with thousands losing their jobs in the silk sector. ?The trend continues,? he said.

According to people in the government machinery and farmers, the state has failed to support sericulture farming, while concentrating on the new economy sectors. Unlike in other departments, the government has replaced the heads of the state?s sericulture department 10 times in the past 10 years. Some commissioners could not even stay in the post for more than six months, affecting plan and policy. The demand-supply gap has been widening. Raw silk demand in India stood at 28,000 tonne a year while the country could produce only 19,000 tonne. The union government had set a target to cross 27,000 tonne during the 10th five year plan but it failed to achieve it due to collapse of the sericulture sector in Karnataka. Now the government has fixed a target of 26,000 tonne p.a. to be achieved during the 11th Plan. The government may not achieve this target too, at this rate. With only two more years left for the completion of 11th Plan, the country?s silk production touched only 19,690 tonne in 2009-10.