Tussar silk Production in the forest, worth an experience

Tussar silk

Happen to experience the Tussar silk production in a place called Kirei, near Sundargarh (District Headquarter of Sundergarh District in Odisha, India ). Tussar silk is produced from Silk work in the wild forest (on trees like Sal, Arjun and Saja) and hence called "Wild Silk". Below are the pictures taken in the forest near Kirei where you can see how the Worms have eaten the leaves of the Sal plant. Each year the branches of the tress are cut so as to get fresh new green leaves which the worms eat. The 2nd pictures shows the worm on the tree trunk. It has got very nice fluorescent green color with red dots .. Looks beautiful indeed. You can see many silk worm crawling on the tree and sometime tree run out of leaves:-) When that happens the worms can go down the trunk to a different tree. Then comes the oval shaped cocoon ( Picture 3 below) from where the silk is produced by boiling that in water to get silk yarn. Cocoon is very hard and hence it is boiled in water to make it soft and make the silk extraction process easier. Tussar silk has rich coarse texture and gives a gives a cool comfort feeling. It has got many natural shades. Top designers use this to showcase their creativity. The sari is the most important Tussar silk product. Tussar silk saris looks great. Garments produced from Tussar Silk are known globally and are being exported. 

It was a privileged to visit Kirei and see the whole process, awesome experience.

Tussar silk production in forest (Sal, Arjun and Saja trees)

Tussar Worm on Sal Tree trunk:

Tussar Cocoon Sal Tree trunk:

Tussar Cocoon on Sal Tree Branch:

Sambalpuri silk & Tussar silk are the the produces of the same region.