Eri Silk - The name Eri is derived from the Assamese word 'ERA', which means castor-oil, the plant on which the Eri silkworm mostly feeds. It is obtained from semi-domesticated multi voltine silkworm, Antheraea assamensis. These silkworms feed on the aromatic leaves of Som and Soalu plants and are reared on trees similar to that of Tasar.
This golden yellow color silk is the second largest variety of silk being produced in India and quantity wise, it is next to mulberry silk and is approximately 7 - 8% of mulberry production. It is mostly reared in north eastern part of India like Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. Traditionally Eri silk used to be reared in wild and hence known as wild silk which is a non-continuous silk by nature Eri silk is always identified as Assam silk.
Besides a few tribal inhabited districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa also practice this cottage industry as a subsidiary occupation. Recently, this sector drew the attention of Government of India and other Research institutions such as CSTRI and WRA have identified its potentiality to be the next silk variety after mulberry, which can be domesticated in a big way to produce silk spun yarn and blends and other value added items.
Due to its compatible character with fine wool, it has been identified as the best component in blends with fine wool to impart soothing luster and strength to the product in homogenous blends, which is otherwise not possible with any other silk variety.
Eri silk is a protein fibre. The fineness range of this fibre is between 14 to 16 u. It is not a continuous filament and is to be spun into a yarn. It is supple, lustrous and has tendency to lap when tried to open and roll. It can be blended with cotton, wool and similar finer fibres. But economically and technically it is viable to blend it with wool.
Form of availability of raw material of Eri silk and fine wool differ, and also basic fiber properties vary, hence they need to undergo different processes till they are suitable for good blending. The eri silk is always available in cocoon form and open mouthed and the insect inside the cocoon is always allowed to pierce the cocoon to go out. And by nature, it is non continuous and there is no loss as such if the insect is not killed ,except some discoloration of the cocoon due to urination while coming out of the cocoon . These cocoons contain sericin gum which is to be removed for further smooth processing. So the first process is degumming further followed by other processes till top conversion.
