Still, the industry can be revived the same way as in neighbouring Bangladesh where the same unfavourable weather prevails, the director of the Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute (CSRTI), RK Datta, said.

He said that non-governmental organisations there have contributed much in putting the silk industry back on its rails and felt there is no reason why it cannot be repeated at Sualkuchi.

Speaking to newsmen in Mysore recently, Datta, an expert on silk, said that the Bangladesh formula can be applied here as well to revive the industry which at one time attracted name and fame from within the country and abroad.

The director however lamented that heavy rain in the north-east had hampered the growth of the silk industry as a whole despite the region possessing immensepotential.

He said the CSRTI was ready to provide any assistance to the Assam government to develop the Sualkuchi silk and called for an interaction between the scientists of his centre and that of the state for achieving positive results.

Elaborating on the activities of the CSRTI since its establishment in 1963 in Mysore, Datta said that in the past three and a half decades of research and development efforts, the scientists have been successful in increasing mulberry leaf cultivation from 35 to 70 metric tonnes annually per hectare.

The raw silk productivity has also doubled and due to the efforts of the institute, Karnataka occupied the first place in raw silk production in the country, the director said.

Hybrids have been developed and the scientists have also been successful in developing an "eco friendly sericulture farming", he said.

"Eco-friendly sericulture farming'' was achieved using vermicompost through organic sericulture waste recycling, application of bio-fertilizers and bio-controltechniques to combat the silkworm and mulberry diseases and pests, Datta said.

The director hoped that all these inventions would usher in a new era of sustainable sericulture in the next millennium.

"At the same time it is earnestly hoped that dissemination of technologies to the field as an integrated package will ensure manifold increase in silk production in the country and arrest import of raw silk as well,'' the director said.

The institute, he pointed out, has been successful in developing appropriate sericulture technologies suited to the tropical climate. The CSRTI has also developed 35 technologies, including improved mulberry and silkworm breeds, which have been successfully field tested, he said.