Invasion of Parthenium hysterophorus L. across land use types in Kirtipur Municipality

Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive alien weed, is spreading rapidly across various land uses in Nepal. To understand how Parthenium is spreading across land uses at local scale, occurrence of this weed was recorded and its’ coverage in percent estimated along trails and road network at every 100 meter distance in Kirtipur Municipality of Kathmandu valley. In addition, vegetation sampling was done in waste land, road side, tree plantation, and abandoned agriculture land where Parthenium cover was greater than 25 percent. Peoples’ perception about the problem of Parthenium was studied by interviewing 60 respondents using purposive sampling method. Parthenium was present in 15 percent of the surveyed locations and it was more common in urban area than in peri-urban. Peri-urban areas are those areas which are immediately adjacent to a city or urban area. It was frequently found in the waste land, road side, tree plantation, abandoned agriculture land, shrub land, grass land, settlement areas and play ground. In active agriculture land its invasion was negligible. Most of the people were not aware about the negative impact of Parthenium but 8 percent of them reported skin allergies and dermatitis due to regular contact with Parthenium. Therefore, public education can help to prevent spread of Parthenium from urban to peri-urban areas.

Keywords:

Distribution mapping , Invasive weed , Land use , people’s perception , species richness