Muga, the golden silk produced only in India, and the research institute for it at Ladoigarh in Jorhat

Background

Assam has the potential for production of 3 varieties of silk: mulberry, eri and muga. Muga silk of Assam is the unique golden-yellow silk produced only in India. Muga is a wild eco race available only in India, found mainly in Assam and parts of Meghalaya and Nagaland bordering Assam. The Central Silk Board runs the Central Muga Research Institute at Ladoigarh, Jorhat, in Assam, where 8 best muga silkworm races have been isolated and assessed. A Muga Raw Material Bank (MRMB) is functioning at Sibsagar in Assam with three sub-depots, at Dhakukhana and Sualkuchi in Assam and Coochbehar in West Bengal. The Government, through the Central Silk Board, has implemented the centrally sponsored Catalytic Development Programme in collaboration with the State Sericulture Department of Assam to promote Mulberry, Eri and Muga silk production in Assam. The official account records that Assam does not produce the quantity of mulberry silk its consumers demand, mulberry silk yarn being supplied by traders from other parts of the country, and that a few silk fabric traders have been producing Assamese dress materials, particularly Mekhela-Chadar, of mulberry silk at weaving units outside the State. The Silk Mark scheme of the Silk Mark Organisation of India is the quality assurance label for products made of pure silk.