Interestingly, the NBPGR has listed the years of entry of exotic pests. The sunflower downy mildew came to India in 1984, peanut stripe virus in 1987, American serpentine leaf miner in 1991, spiralling white in 1993, vegetable/pea leaf miner in 1994, banana bract streak virus and coconut mite in 1995 and Bemisia tabaci biotype B in 1999.

The scientific body has already noted the presence of some exotic pests on some crops, like blight on chickpea which possibly came from West Asia, B.tabaci biotype K on cotton, PSTV on peanut, BBTV on banana which possibly came from Sri Lanka, San Jose Scale on apple which came from US and Golden nematode on potato which came from UK. It also identified pests like Lantana camara coming from central America and Phalarius minor from Mexico. The presence of other exotic pests identified are fluted scale, codling moth, potato cyst nematode, coffee berry borer, potato wart, banana mosaic virus and apple scab.

"We have been suggesting to the government from time to time for the need to take stringent measures to prevent the entry of any exotic pest or disease which may endanger our food security. We can also conduct agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR to detect terminator technology in imported transgenic plants," said a senior scientist in the NBPGR plant quarantine division.

According to ICFRF out of the identified 75 FIS, 61 are species of plants, including 12 species of fungi and 14 are species of insects. These 75 FIS are found in different forest regions of the country. There are also 36 FIS found localized in some areas. ICFRF also concluded that out of these identified FIS, 28 species are native to India but have but have taken invasive proportions in other bio-geographical regions of the country.

... contd.