{"id":127553,"date":"2026-10-05T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=127553"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T07:39:43","slug":"sal-heartwood-borer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sal-heartwood-borer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sal Heartwood Borer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Sal Heartwood Borer Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sal trees in Dindori forests of Madhya Pradesh are witnessing a major infestation of the sal heartwood borer this year, compelling the government and local communities to undertake a mega exercise to tackle the pest.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Sal Heartwood Borer<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a beetle of the order- <\/span><b>Coleoptera, family-Cerambycydae.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Hoplocerambyx spinicornis,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> commonly known as the sal heartwood borer, is a destructive pest first recorded as a threat to the trees in 1897.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Appearance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It looks dark brown in color and is about the size of a human finger.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the most devastating insect pest responsible for catastrophic damage of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sal-tree\/\" target=\"_blank\">sal forests<\/a><\/strong> of the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It causes extensive damage to sal trees both in <\/span><b>standing as well as freshly felled timbers.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The attack of the <\/span><b>borer is considered epidemic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when the sal trees affected are more than <\/span><b>1% of the total number of trees.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Sal Tree<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sal, or Shorea robusta, is among the dominant tree species of <\/span><b>central India\u2019s dry deciduous forests.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is found naturally in <\/span><b>Uttarakhand, Terai region of Uttar Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Required Climatic Conditions for Sal Tree<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Temperature:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It can tolerate temperatures as <\/span><b>high as 40-45\u00b0Celcius<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in summers and as low as 5\u00b0Celcius in winters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Soil:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It can be grown in the plains, provided there <\/span><b>is light loamy soil with good drainage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the area receives approximately 1000 mm \u2013 3000 mm of annual rainfall.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Climate:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It requires a <\/span><b>warm and humid climate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and can thrive at altitudes up to 1500 metres above the sea level.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Uses of Sal Tree<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sal timber has historically been prized for <\/span><b>construction and for railway sleepers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because of its strength and resistance to decay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Sal seed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> pressed for <\/span><b>oil and used in cooking<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and in the soap and confectionery industries;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sal leaves, stitched <\/span><b>into plates and bowls<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sold across local markets; and resin tapped from the trunk, used as <\/span><b>dhoop in religious offerings.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/sal-beetle-madhya-pradesh-cutting-trees-save-forest-10905624\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sal Heartwood Borer is a beetle of the order- Coleoptera, family-Cerambycydae. Read more about Sal Heartwood Borer, Appearance, Distribution, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":127567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10673],"class_list":["post-127553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-sal-heartwood-borer","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127603,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127553\/revisions\/127603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}