Imphal, November 11 2008: WHAT IS generally considered as one of the saddest events that happened in a decade in the trouble-afflicted state of Manipur is the wide-spread drying up of Yongchak (tree-beans) in both the hills and the plains of the state since 2004 .

Even as the winter is into its first quarter of the hardly four-month long cold period, the most favourite dish of the indigenous people of Manipur grown on a plant/tree is yet to be seen in plenty at the markets in the state.

Usually in the past, by this time of the winter, piles and piles of Yongchak used to be stacked up high at the markets and people used to be seen carrying home bunches of the crop considered as a part of the most valuable vegetables.

But like in the past three or four years, even at this time of the year, a majority of the indigenous people haven't had the taste of Yongchak merely because of two reasons�that little produce of the crop has reached the markets so far and that the price is exorbitantly high �far beyond the common men's affordability.

Meanwhile, even at the market of Tamei Sub-division, where the produce of Yongchak used to be far more than any other place in the state, the crop is hardly available now.

Because, most of the Yongchak trees grown in the areas of Tamei sub-division have already dried and died, and the rest are also drying ceaselessly.

Scientists and experts of College of Agriculture, Central Agriculture University, Iroishemba, Imphal West, along with the Agriculture Department of the Government of Manipur have taken up research and investigations into the cause of the wide-spread drying of the Yongchak trees and found that the trees are being gradually killed by insects.

The experts have been finding means to save the Yongchak trees from the insects but the drying epidemic is continues across the state unabated.

The villages in Tamei Sub-division where the Yongchak is produced in the largest quantity are Ileng, Henglong, Khunphung, Drona and other villages in the Barak range.

Residents of Tamei told this reporter that Ileng is the village where Yongchak is grown most abundantly.

Now is the time for Yongchak to be available in plenty at the Tamei market but the crop is scarcely seen there.

And the price for even a single piece of Yongchak, which is very thin and has no seeds, is tagged at Rs 10 .

Since the produce of Yongchak in the hill areas has gone down so much, the same is on the brink of non-availability in the markets of the valley.

Three pieces of thin and seedless Yongchak at an Imphal market cost Rs 50 which is next to beyond the capacity of the common people.

More unfortunate are the Yongchak growers of Tamei Sub-division for whom a Yongchak tree is considered as a valuable money-tree.

When the villagers needed money, they used to mortgage one or two or more Yongchak trees at a sum of about Rs 2,000 to Rs.3,000 per tree.

Now that almost all the Yongchak trees are gradually drying and dying, the growers are really disappointed.

After the scientists of the CAU have detected that certain insects eat up the trunk of the Yongchak trees and certain other insects bore holes in the trunk, the Department of Agriculture, Government of Manipur has taken up various steps to save the Yongchak trees.

Even certain NGOs have initiated efforts to save the Yongchak from complete extinction.

Unless the agricultural scientists ad experts and the government authorities sit and put heads together to chalk out a concrete strategy to find easy and quick ways to save the dying Yongchak trees, it is feared that Yongchak will become completely extinct and history.

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