An international team of experts visited Kuttanad and Sanatana Dharma (SD) College, Alappuzha, as part of an aquatic weed monitoring project.
The project launched in March 2020 is developing effective methods that combine the use of multiple data sources (satellite and drone observations and ground-based sensors) to monitor the spread of invasive aquatic weed-water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in Kuttanad and Patencheru Lake in Hyderabad.
The team of researchers visited selected regions of Kuttanad to make field-based observations on water hyacinth infestation and water quality. They held discussions with the faculty and management of the SD College. The University of Stirling, United Kingdom (UK), is the lead partner of the project. Other partnering institutions include the University of Strathclyde, UK, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Indian Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), Hyderabad, and SD College. The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, London, under its ‘Frontiers Follow-on’ scheme that comes under the Global Challenges Research Fund of the UK government. The total grant sanctioned is approximately ₹3 crore for the project lasting till October 31, 2023.
The research team is led by principal investigator Savithri Maharaj of Stirling University. G. Nagendra Prabhu, principal investigator, Centre for Research on Aquatic Resources of SD College, is a collaborator for the project.
The team members were presented with a pen made of water hyacinth stem and a digital representation of the project prepared on special hand-made paper from water hyacinth, designed by EichhoTech, a student start-up being incubated in S D College.
