Bhubaneswar: Silk is the strongest and fastest natural fiber in the world. In India, four types of silks are produced, namely Eri, Mulberry, Tasar and Muga. Eri and Tasar farming has been going on for many years in our state. In a controlled climate and clean atmosphere, the above crop is cultivated by the farmer in his own house or paddy field.
Previously, to remove the thread from the cells produced by Eri Worm Farming, the cells had to be boiled in hot water, thereby killing the living insects that were dormant in the cells. So we had to sacrifice the lives of millions of innocent silkworms for the growth of the garment industry through a violent process. Realizing the uncompassionate approach towards the silkworms, the state government decided to start a pilot project for the production of nonviolent silk under 5Ts initiatives in the year 2022. In this endeavour, attempts were made to plant castor trees and cultivate Eri silk for the development and growth of the textile industry.
In this, about 700 Eri farmers were adopted for the promotion of Castor-based Ericulture to allow the innocent silkworms to complete their natural life cycle without being killed with hot water. Similarly, under the second-year pilot project, more than 2,000 Eri farmers in 12 districts of the state have been engaged and their produced cocoons have been processed through nonviolent methods. The 4 basic cycles adopted in the above pilot process are 1- Cultivation of high-quality castor as the host plant, 2- Rearing of Eri silkworms, 3- Allowing the cocoons produced by the silkworms to complete their life cycle (butterflies) in the natural system, 4- Production for nonviolent sacred silk for clothing and cosmetics by using the silk shells left by the silk moth.
Today, in our fastest way to produce sacred silk, we have saved the lives of millions of silkworms and the products produced are more popular in the form of ‘Karuna Silk’. For the first time, Gita GobindPatta prepared by ‘Karuna Silk’ has been given to Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri. The government has decided to promote non-violent silk production and name this natural silk brand as ‘Karuna Silk’ in coming days. The above initiative of the government is expected to help the livelihood of sericulture farmers, spinners and weavers in the days to come and our state’s ‘Karuna Silk’ is expected to hold its place in the world market.