LAHORE - The native Shisham tree has caught a deadly disease called dieback due to climate change and falling water table in entire region of South Asia and survival of Shisham tree, famous for quality furniture wood, is under threat. These views were expressed by foreign and local forest experts at a workshop held here Thursday at a local hotel to discuss the propagation of healthy Shisham and required research work for saving the Shisham tree from dieback disease. Experts, scientists, researchers and representatives from academia attended the first day proceeding. The Minister for Forest Ahmad Ali Aulak chaired the workshop whereas Secretary Forests Babar Hassan Bharwana, Muhammad Mehbub-ur-Rehman, Chief Conservator of Forests, Central Zone, Lahore and Dr Shahzad Jahangir, Inspector General Forests, Ministry of Environment, Islamabad were also present to grace the occasion. Forests experts gave recommendations for saving Shisham tree from the disease of Dieback due to which tree branches get dry and eventually whole tree become dead after some time. The experts said as the intensity of disease increases, the effected area of the tree starts decaying and the supply of water and food stops through its vascular bundles, thus tree completely gets dried up. In the inaugural session, Inspector General Forests stressed to take the advantage of the opportunities provided by global environmental facility for promotion of environment friendly trees namely cederala toona, sweitenia mahogany, caurina equisatifolia, tectona grandis, gmelina arboria, albezzia procera, terminal arjuna & Kumar (white teak), for clean environment. The Secretary, Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries, Govt of the Punjab provided a thought provoking in details on Shisham tree in Punjab and requested the participants to provide constructive inputs to tackle the menace of Shisham dieback through participatory approach. Subsequently, Minister for forests discussed in detail the extent of forest dwindling resource and initiatives taken to tackle the issue near future in his inaugural address. In the first and 2nd technical session, experts read the presentation on historical perspective of Shisham dieback and extent of this menace, economic aspects of the deadly disease. All of them focuseded on the recommendations of preventive measures to curb this menace of Shisham dieback. Experts said spray should be done periodically with Topsin M (2 gram/liter water) after peeling off effected part of the tree and the trees should be regularly inspected as soon as symptoms appear and apply spray immediately. Always treat the seed with Topsin M (2 gram/liter) before sowing. Farmers/tree growers must be imparted training regarding planting procedures and tree diseases.