A comprehensive account of anthracnose disease symptoms, occurrence and intensity on Rauvolfia Serpentina (Sarpagandha) in and adjoining areas of north 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India

A destructive anthracnose disease of Rauvolfia serpentina L. Benth. Ex Kurz. is found in West Bengal. It’s causal organism was isolated and phenotypically identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporoides. Once in a week survey for two consecutive years of 2013 and 2014 in ten places of 24 Parganas (N) district, West Bengal establishes the presence of disease in all ten places. PDI was recorded by monitoring it’s cultivation at 4 selected areas in and adjoining North 24 Parganas, West Bengal for the same time period. Maximum PDI (66.66%-89.90%) was during September and minimum (17.64-39.20 %) was recorded during December – January in all four studied areas. There was only few reports of anthracnose diseases on Rauvolfia serpentina but also this is the first approach to the study of disease intensity of anthracnose disease of Rauvolfia serpentina in this state. So our work is an entirely new one in this regard.