Dhiren Bhaiysa, a traditional handloom weaver from Assam’s silk hub Sualkuchi, has been engaged in production of Muga silk for the last 20 years. He used to have ten handlooms exclusively for weaving traditional Muga products but has sold eight of them. Rising price of Muga cocoon has pushed up price of Assam’s golden yarn making production of Muga silk unsustainable for Baishya and other traditional Muga silk weavers and loom owners.

As weaving has become non-remunerative, weavers engaged on traditional Muga looms have shifted to Assam’s capital city Guwahati and other urban hubs for alternative livelihood, Baishya says. This has resulted in shortage of experienced weavers needed to keep the Muga looms functional adding to the crisis.

Baishya sends his daughter to school and wants her to take up a good job so that she can earn well and does not want her to engage in Muga silk production. For, a Muga silk weaver can now earn a maximum amount of just Rs 10,000 in a month. Around 40 households in his locality had Muga looms in the past but most of the looms have become idle now.

Assam accounts for around 85 per cent of the total Muga production in India. Meghalaya, Nagaland. Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh account for the rest 15 per cent.

Bhabesh Kakati, a pioneering entrepreneur of Sualkuchi who used to do business of Muga fabric, has shifted to alternative business as the business of Muga silk products has become unsustainable for him. He says that sharp increase in price of Muga products has rendered them unaffordable for most buyers. This has brought down sales impacting the business.

A large number of traditional Muga growers replaced their Som tree plantations (Muga silk worm feeds on Som tree leaves) with small tea gardens as the latter fetched them more profits, he adds. As a result Muga produced is insufficient to meet the market demand. Kakati laments that the younger generation of the traditional Muga weavers’ families is not willing to carry their long family tradition.

Hitlal Thakuriya, another experienced weaver who has been working for last 25 years says that the due to extreme weather condition most Muga silkworms die before the larvae maturing and spinning cocoons. He sought government’s intervention to address the problem.

While crisis resulting from rise in price of cocoons grips traditional Muga weavers, Central Silk Board’s statistics show that the production of reeling cocoon has increased from 5576 lakh in 2012-13 to 5576 9645 lakh in 2017-18. Similarly, the production of raw Muga silk increased from 119 MT in 2012-13 to 192 MT in 2017-18, 232 MT in 2018-19.

The price of Muga (warp) has increased from Rs.10000-12000 in the year 2012-13 to Rs 18000-22000 in the year 2017-18. Similarly, the price of Muga(weft) has increased from 8000-9500 in the year 2012-13 to Rs.17000-20000 in the year 2017-18.

Manabendra Saikia, Assistant Director at the Directorate of Sericulture, says the demand for Muga silk products has gone up in the international market, more particularly in countries like Japan, Italy and Brazil. But the production is less compared to the demand as the Muga silkworm cannot survive even the minimalist of the pollution as they are too sensitive to the ecological condition. He underlines the need for more research work to find a solution.

“As Muga silk rearing is done in the open, the silkworm cannot withstand rise in temperature. The production declines in the months of June, July and August due to rise in temperature rise but the October and November are good for production as there is moderate temperature. The silkworms also cannot survive extreme cold temperature,” he says.

Dr.Rajiv Munshi, Scientist at the Central Silk Board says that even though demand has gone up in the international market and production of Muga silk increased to 232 MT in 2018-19 it was not sufficient to cater to the rising demand both in the domestic as well as international markets.

Ishshita Chanda

( Ishshita Chanda is a student of M.A. ( 3^rd Semester) at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, IMS Unison University, Dehradun. She has produced this multimedia story as part of her Summer Internship at NEZINE. She can be reached at [email protected] )