Mahaoba city in Uttar Pradesh state has many lakes of historical importance which are today losing their life owing to aquatic weeds. The major lakes in Mahoba which are badly infested with weeds are Keerat Sagar, Kalyan Sagar and Belatal with an area of 53.97, 24.24 and 643 hectare, respectively. District Collector, Mahoba Shri Satyendra Kumar, requested the Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur to help in this endeavour of social cause. A workshop was organised by the District Collector, Mahoba on 03-07-2021 involving all the stakeholders of the district for the management of aquatic weeds in the lakes. Dr. Sushil Kumar, Principal Scientist, exclusively working on biological control was deputed by the Directorate to visit the lakes and make the authorities of the district aware of the losses caused by the aquatic weeds in lakes and ponds, and ways to manage them. The purpose of this workshop was to gain the knowledge of management of aquatic weeds in general and water hyacinth in particular, and to chalk out the long-term plan for the effective management of the aquatic weeds to revive the lakes for aesthetic value and water conservation as well.

Dr. Sushil Kumar from ICAR-DWR visited the lakes in Mahoba and delivered the talk on the management of aquatic weeds. It was found during survey that Keerat Sagar was mainly infested with lotus, Typha, water hyacinth and Hydirlla while Kalyan Sagar was infested severely by water hyacinth. Belatal was mainly infested with the lotus and submerged aquatic weed like Hydrila. One another lake Madan Sagar was also severely infested with the water hyacinth, but removal programme was under way as per the direction of Collector. Dr. Sushil Kumar apprised the participants about different management methods of the infested ponds through PPT presentation. In the workshop besides many other participants, representative of Chairman of Nagar Palika, Mahoba, Deputy Director Agriculture, District Agriculture Officer, representative from Irrigation department, Archelogical department, Nagar Palika and KVK also participated.

In a separate meeting, District Collector, Mahoba discussed the management methods with Dr. Sushil Kumar in details. He gave instructions to concerned officers to take care of post-management of weeds in Madan Sagar and get release the biaogent Neochetina spp. and grass carp for the management of water hyacinth and Hydrilla in Kalyan Sagar and Belatal, respectively as per the advice of Dr. Sushil Kumar. He also showed interest to get release the bioagent Neochetina spp. with the help of Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur.