MANALI: The invasive and poisonous weed congress grass (parthenium), which has propagated from North America to Maharashtra and then to many Indian states has now wreaked havoc in Kullu villages where it is spreading extremely fast.Locally known as congress grass or gajar ghas, parthenium causes respiratory and skin diseases among humans and even cattle maintain distance from the weed because of its poisonous properties. The weed was first sighted in Una, Bilaspur and some lower areas of the state and now it has started moving towards high altitude regions. In Kullu town, it is spreading fast in the Kharahal valley. Mostly, the weed can be seen by the roadsides in many villages. The weed, according to its nature, has started killing other species.Vimal Sharma, a resident of Talaiti village of Kharahal valley, said that the locals of his area have no idea of the grass. “We had never seen this species until two years ago. Now it’s growing everywhere and spreading very fast. We have observed that the area where it grows, no other weed survives. Cattle stay away from them. It is thriving mostly close to the roads,” he said.Experts say the weed can be eradicated manually by hands if invasion is in primary phase. Otherwise, it starts suffocating other flora in the region. Unfortunately, people are unaware about its adverse effect on health and environment.“We don’t know anything about this grass. This is new to the area and I don’t think anybody in the area even know the name of this species,” another resident Hemraj Sharma said. If this species is harmful for both humans and cattle, government should take effective steps to root out this menace and educate the people, he added. Forest conservator with Himachal forest department, Bhupinder Singh Rana, who had warned about possibility of congress grass menace in the state and had run campaigns to destroy this weed in 2013, said he had observed the presence of this poisonous weed in lower Kullu in 2011. “Public awareness is the only solution to this problem. Best way to get rid of this weed is to uproot it by hands after wearing gloves and mask. It should be destroyed before it grows flowers and seeds,” he said.According to experts, a plant of congress grass can produce over 20,000 seeds and propagate with the help of wind, animals and human. Once it spreads, its complete eradication will be very difficult.