Chilli is an important cash crop and India is the largest grower, consumer and exporter of dry chillies and other products to over 90 countries around the world. This crop suffers heavy losses in yield due to many diseases especially dieback and fruit rot diseases. The present study was undertaken to know the behaviour of the disease and biology of the pathogen so as to devise better management practices of the diseases to avoid losses. Cultural variations varied and colonies appeared from fluffy to suppressed with regular to irregular margins. Colour of colonies ranged between whitish grey to black. Growth rate of isolates was between 5.97 – 9.00 mm day-1. Morphological studies of isolates revealed average conidial length varied from 18.88 µm to 24.59 µm and mean conidial width ranged between 2.86 µm (Cc 40) to 5.94 µm  (Cc 37). The average setae size varied from 78 -146 μm. Cluster analysis of the data on cultural and morphological characterization of C. capsici isolates revealed two major groups (I and II) based on distance matrices at the distance of 4.0. The group I and II included 27 and 13 isolates, respectively.

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