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On the old Ioannina-Arta national highway, the area after Terovo is called Platanakia. The reason is obvious.
The centennial plane trees on the banks of the Louros. Until a few months ago they would get up and leave the traveler with breaths of freshness and images of infinite natural beauty.
Today, what one sees causes sadness. A vast “graveyard” of bananas. The illness “Metachromatic ulcer” caused by the lethal Ceratocystis platani fungus, harvest the bananas. First he strips them and then rots them. Bananas in Louros are a thing of the past, as in the other rivers of Epirus, as in Kalamas where the image of the environment has radically changed. The banana ecosystem was lost.
Those in charge, with their limited resources and what they have at their disposal, embark on a “race on the road” to save the trees from this catastrophic disease.
The forester of Preveza, Vassilis Kormetzas, explained to ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ that the banana disease appeared about 15 years ago in the Western Peloponnese and until today, as everything shows, no one can tame it. It is transmitted by tools or machines that carry the fungus as they move to work from one area to another. In fact, he noted that it can withstand steel for more than 15 years.
“Chlorinated water, alcohol or the cauterization of tools and machines are needed before they can be used,” says Mr Kormetzas, which is unfortunately not observed.
The fungus is transmitted from tree to tree by the underground root system. This is the beginning of destruction in all riparian areas where banana ecosystems exist.
Despite the great information campaign of all the competent services of Epirus, the metachromatic ulcer harvests the bananas.
“Danger sign”, the plane trees on the much photographed route of the city of Ioannina, next to the lake and below the castle. In a sampling carried out by the Ioannina Forest Department of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus-Western Macedonia and the sending of samples to the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, the infestation of a metachromatic ulcer in plantain D was confirmed in the laboratory. From d.
Rigas Tsiakiris, a phytosanitary inspector for the Ioannina Forest Service, informs APE-MPE that trees have already been removed from the lakeside path. In fact, the Forest Service proposes its replacement by others that thrive in humid environments.
In the Ioannina area, there are many outbreaks of the disease.
Experts estimate that a large percentage of the fungus was transmitted by Greek machines working in Albania and became infected, as the disease killed all the bananas there.
To deal with the disease, Mr Tsiakiris says that interventions have been carried out on individual trees or small clusters in the villages with great efficiency, something that is not possible on the riverbanks, where work is often done.
“The diaspora is man-made, it has spread to other areas of Greece,” he characteristically notes, adding: “We believe that this deadly fungus is the most serious environmental threat to the country’s forest ecosystems. Bananas are threatened with immediate extinction.
“The destruction of the bananas will cause other enormous damages, because they retain the transported materials and prevent floods that will destroy crops and infrastructure.”
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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