About 90 per cent of the total production of silk textiles comes from Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Other main producing states are Bihar (tasar), Assam (muga), Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya. The total annual production of raw silk is about 16,000 tons. There are about 100 silk textile mills in India, but it is popular as an handloom industry.
1. Karnataka is the largest silk producer, but it produces only mulberry silk. Main silk producing districts are Bangalore, Mysore, Kolar, Mandya, Tumkur, and Belgaum. Mysore and Channapatna are the main centres of silk textiles. The state uses about 40 per cent of the total yarn produced and the rest is sent to Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Arani, Dharmavaram, Kumbakonam and Surat.
2. West Bengal produces about 7 per cent of the total silk most of which is of mulberry variety. The main silk weaving centres in West Bengal are at Bishnupur, Baswa, Murshidabad, Bankura, Raghunathpur and Kolkata.
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Other important centres are as under:
Andhra Pradesh:
Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Warangal, Adilabad and Kurnool districts.
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Tamil Nadu:
Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Nilgiris, Salem and Tirunelveli districts.
Jammu and Kashmir:
Anantnag, Baramula, Doda, Jammu, Riasi, and Udhampur districts.
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Bihar and Jharkhand:
Palamau, Hazaribagh, Bhagalpur and Ranchi.
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh:
Balaghat, Bastar, Bilaspur, Rajgarh and Surguja districts.
Assam:
Goalpara, Kamrup, Barpeta, Nalbari and Nagaon districts.
Production and Exports:
In India, about 90 per cent of the total raw silk production is of mulberry variety. Most of the silk products are exported to the countries of Europe, Africa and Middle East. Raw silk is not an important export item. India imports raw silk from China for making expensive sarees and quality silk products.
Problems of Silk Industry in India:
i. Competition from artificial and synthetic materials is the main problem of the Indian silk industry.
ii. The artificial silk is cheaper and better in quality.
iii. The price fluctuation in the case of raw silk affects the silk textile industry adversely.
iv. There is no systematic testing and grading of silk.
v. The import of cheaper raw silk from China is affecting sericulture in India.
vi. The government is not making sincere efforts for the modernisation of silk textile mills in India.