~ 2799 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; 7(5): 2799-2802 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; 7(5): 2799-2802 Received: 16-07-2018 Accepted: 18-08-2018 Dharnendra Reang Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Uttarbanga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India S Khalko Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Uttarbanga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India A Roy Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Uttarbanga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India Correspondence Dharnendra Reang Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Uttarbanga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India To find out the seasonal incidence of diseases in chilli at different locations of Terai zone of West Bengal Dharnendra Reang, S Khalko and A Roy Abstract Survey of chilli diseases was carried out at seven locations in Terai zone of West Bengal. The diseases found during the period of survey are Anthracnose, Cercospora Leaf Spot, Choanephora blight, Leaf Curl and Wilt. The severity percentage of Anthracnose, Choanephora blight and Cercospora leaf spot affected was less during winter season and more during rainy season. The severity percentage of Anthracnose disease ranged from 3.09 % to 12.64 % during winter season and 17.07 % to 25.60 % in rainy season in fruits. The severity percentage of Choanephora blight disease ranged from 0.64 % to 3.68 % during winter season and 16.05 % to 21.49 % in rainy season in fruits. The severity percentage of Cercospora leaf spot disease during winter season and rainy season ranged from 1.16 % to 6.81 % and 8.98 % to 28.57 % respectively. Keywords: Chilli, anthracnose, Cercospora leaf spot, Choanephora blight, leaf curl, wilt Introduction Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) or red pepper, a member of solanaceae is an important economic crop worldwide (Poulos, 1992) [6] . The primary centre of origin of chilli is said to be Mexico with secondary centers in Guatemala and Bulgaria (Salvador, 2002) [9] . It was introduced to Europe by Columbus in 15th century and spread to rest of the globe along the spice trading routes to Africa, India, China and Japan. Chilli was introduced to India by the Portuguese from Brazil in the middle of 17th century. Broadly, the chillies can be categorized into hot and mild types based on pungency. In the world, it is cultivated on an area of 1.45 million hectares with an annual production of 19.50 million tonnes and having the productivity of 2,808 kg ha-1 (Anon., 2007) [2] . The important chilli producing countries in the world are India, China, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Turkey and Srilanka. The ‘mild’ Chilli is known as paprika and it is produced in Hungary, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovak Republic countries. In India, chilli is grown all over the country under varying agro-climatic zones but area of ripe dry chilli is concentrated in southern states. In India, the area under this crop is 8.35 lakh hectares with an annual production of 9.50 lakh tonnes with a productivity of 1,016 kg ha-1 (Anon., 2007) [2] . India alone contributes about 50 per cent of world production, out of which 90 per cent is used for domestic consumption and only six per cent is exported to other countries like USA, Bangladesh, Nepal and Mexico. Chilli fruits are used as pickles, sauces, ketchup, essence, oleoresins and is an inevitable ingredient in Indian dishes. Chilli is a good source of capsaicin, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin and thiamine. It contains about 8.8 gram carbohydrates, 5.3 gram sugar, 1.9 gram protein and 534 micro gram beta carotene per 100 gram chilli (Panda et. al., 2010) [5] . These properties increase the demand for chillies all over the world. Chilli suffers from many diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and also abiotic stresses. Among the fungal diseases, anthracnose or fruit rot, leaf spots, damping off and powdery mildew are the most prevalent ones. Different fungi viz. Alternaria tenuis, Aspergillus spp., Cercospora capsici, Colletotrichum capsici, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium spp., Macrophomina phaseolina and Penicillium spp. were found to be associated with the seeds obtained from diseased fruits of chilli and also some seed-borne fungi such as Aspergillus spp., Colletotrichum capsici, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium spp. and Penicillium spp. were found to be associated with the healthy fruits of chilli (Rahman et. al., 2004) [7] . Considering the literature on Chilli diseases the objectives of the present investigation has been planned on the study of seasonal incidence of different chilli diseases in order to get an idea on occurrence of chilli diseases at different localities of Terai zone of West