PALMYRA TREE - TAPPING – TRADITIONAL SKILLS AND RECENT

PALMYRA TREE - TAPPING – TRADITIONAL SKILLS AND RECENT
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
By
Muniyandi.K and M. Vinoth Ambedkar
People’s Action for Development, Vembar
A CASE STUDY: From Shri.Ramesh @ Palavesam, Balammal kudieruppu, Naripaiyur Panchayat, Kadaladi block, Ramanathapuram District.




Palmyra tree is a monocot plant belonging to the family Palmaceae, its scientific name is Borassus flabellifer. It is a dioecious plant with separate male and female trees. Unhindered, a Palmyra tree will grow upright up to a height of 30 meter, bearing 30-40 fan like leaves. As mankind is getting various benefits from Palmyra tree, it is considered as a ‘Karpagatharu’ meaning a tree from heaven. Palmyra tree’s native is not known clearly, but it is abundant mainly in Asian countries like India, Srilanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China. It is also found in the West African country like Congo. In India, it is found abundantly in the state of Tamilnadu and its distribution extents in the states of Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Among the 8.59 crore Palmyra trees in India, Tamilnadu state alone has 5.10 crore. It is the state tree of Tamilnadu. The importance of Palmyra tree can be judged in the context that all the ancient Tamil literatures were written only in Palmyra leaves. Hence all the known present day Tamil literatures were safeguarded only by the leaves of Palmyra.

Palmyra tapping is one of the ancient occupations of the people. The phrases “Kallundu kalithungal” meaning good sleep after drank toddy and “Kallunda Manthipool” meaning just like a monkey which drank toddy in ancient Tamil literatures denote the ages of this occupation. This Occupation is highly dangerous and warrants heavy physical work.

TOOLS USED IN PALMYRA TAPPING WORK

An active Palmyra tapper’s work starts by 2 A.M every day. Daily he claims around 50 Palmyra trees, collect the palm juices (Pathaneer) from 4 to 5 pots hung around the crown of each tree(one pot/floral rachis), into the bigger pot or tin hung with his waist. After collecting the juice, he slices the tip of each floral rachis with a sharp sickle kept only for slicing purpose in the wooden box tied with his waist. Each pot hung with the floral rachis is given a coat of lime powder which also will be kept in the wooden box. The lime coating is given to prevent fermentation of palm juice into toddy. The limed pots are hung as usual with the rachii. On reaching the ground, the palm juice in his waist pot will be transferred to another bigger pot/tin which usually will be kept by his wife in the ground near the trees. By 7 A.M, the tapper may complete the works with around 50 Palmyra trees. By 6 A.M, the female member of the tapper will be ready with the utensils for boiling the palm juice for the preparation of palm jaggery (Karuppatti). If this process is delayed for another one hour, the juice will not be suitable for Karuppatti preparation. Hence the process of Karuppatti preparation should start immediately after the juices are collected. Apart from the above mentioned tools, the tapper’s essential items include the foot rope (Thalai nar) stretched between his two ankles with the tree trunk in between while claiming , another sickle meant for cutting the leaf rachis etc., two types of kidipu for crushing either the male or female floral rachis. The demarking stick is kept in the ground and the trunk of the tree with a slight slanting position. The taper usually will climb from the tip of the demarcating stick’s trunk end.
After completing the first climb, the tapper will eat the previous day’s rice porridge, rest for half an hour and starts his second climb of the day by 8 A.M. During this climb, the tapper slice the tip of each rachis only. He will complete the second climb around 12 A.M. He will have his bath, eat his lunch and sleep for about one hour. He will start his third climb around 2.30 P.M. This time too like the second climb, he slices the tip of each rachis. His third climb will be completed around 7 P.M. He will then go to his house, bath, eat his dinner and go to sleep. This is the one day routine of a Palmyra tapper. If a tapper discontinued his routine for a day, the rachii will become hard and the juice yielding capacity will decrease drastically. Hence, it is said that even during the day of a tapper’s mother death, he has to do his routine tapping work.

PALMYRA JUICE (PATHANEER) SEASON: The Palmyra tapping season starts with the start of the Tamil month ‘Thai’ (middle of January) and extends up to the end of the month ‘Aaadi’ (middle of August). If a tapping season to be good, there should be good rainfall during the previous rainy season (October to December). Then only the Palmyra floral rachii will emerge in the correct season and also in good numbers. First, the floral rachii will emerge from the male trees. Hence the tappers condition the rachii for about a week. For this work, he will climb daily, crush the tip of the rachis with a wooden forceps like instrument called ‘Kadipu’, cloth the rachis with Palmyra leaf piece. If a rachis starts to exude juice, a mud pot coated with dry lime powder will be hung with the rachis to collect the juice. The floral rachii from the female trees will emerge after some days. Hence the same type of conditioning will start as soon as they emerge to a desired length. But the ‘Kadipu’ used for female rachis is bigger than for male rachis. Each rachis will exude the juice for about two months; during that time the length of the rachis also diminish due to slicing three times a day. If the dry lime coating will not be given by the tapper to the pot, the Palmyra juice collected in such pot will become toddy after fermentation. The Palmyra trees grown in irrigated farm lands will yield more juice than the trees in the non irrigated forest area.

PALM JAGGERY (KARUPPATTI) PREPARATION : As a Palmyra tapper is about to complete his first climb of the trees and collected the palm juice from all the climbed trees, his wife or other women of his house will be ready with the utensils and firewood for boiling the juice to make it palm jaggery called ‘Karuppatti’. The boiling will lost for 1 to 1.5 hours. The women involved in this work should be familiar with the end point or the viscosity for Karuppatti formation; otherwise all the juice will be a waste. The collected juice will be boiled immediately; otherwise also, the juice will not yield karuppatti. Usually, by boiling 45 liters of palm juice, 10 kilogram of karuppatti may be got. But, during the peak summer months of May and June (Tamil months of Vaikasi and Aani),

While the dry air from west to east blows, the yield of karuppatti may be more (around 12Kg/45 lits.). The viscous fluid at boiling the palm juice will be poured in cleaned coconut fruit’s half shells. The fluid will become a solid after solidification. The solid material is called Karuppatti which is sweet in taste. Karuppatti is used in lieu of sugar in coffee and many other sweet preparations. It is mostly used in Sidda medicine preparations.

MARKETING KARUPPATTI: Palm juice (Pathaneer) as such is sold rarely by women carrying the juice in a pot inland into villages or towns. It is a good source of amino acids, vitamin-B and mineral salts with 12-13% sugar. But mostly the juice is used for Karuppatti making. The cost of Palmyra juice at present is Rs.40/lit. The Karuppatti is sold to Karuppatti shop owners who are involved exclusively in Karuppatti trade in Vembar region. The cost of Karuppatti at present is Rs.80/Kg. But the cost will increase after the Pathaneer season (after August). During the recent past , the cost has gone up to Rs.140/Kg. As also the cost has gone down to Rs.30/Kg during the Pathaneer season of the recent past years. If a Palmyra tapper got any loan from the merchant, he has to sell the product only to the loanee. He will deduct interest for his loan amount which at present is 2% per month .The interest was 5% per month prior to 2006 when Miss. Jayalalitha was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. She has brought in an act to penalize the person who collects high interest. Due to the act the traders have decreased the rate of interest to 2% per month as at present. Now People’s Action for Development (PAD) is giving loan facilities (MED Loan) to the Palmyra tappers. Due to this facility the Palmyra tappers are standing on their own legs, selling their product to any merchant of their choice and also at the season when the product fetch higher price.

HIRING PALMYRA TREES AND OTHER PALMYRA PRODUCTS: The Palmyra tappers mostly are poor. He will not be the owner of Palmyra trees. He will hire the trees from the owner in lieu of Karuppatti. The lease is for one year from the Tamil month of ‘Thai’ to ‘Markazhi’ (middle of January to end of December). Usually the tapper has to give around 20 kottan (pocket) for 100 trees. The number will vary depending on the yield potential of trees. Each kottan will hold 10 Kg. of Karuppatti. This kind of lease in local term is called as “Bottom’. The owner of the trees will get his share of karuppatti mostly during the high yielding months of Vaikasi or Aaani (May or June). After the pathaneer season, the tapper will use the palm leaves for making karuppatti holding kottans and the leaf petioles (Mattai) are used as fencing materials. The rate of each kottan at present is 40 paisa. The cost of each petiole is 50 paisa. If floral rachis is not used for juice tapping, the rachis will bear Palmyra fruits. The Palmyra fruits before ripening are eaten as ‘Nongu’. After ripening, the seeds are separated and germinated as a mass by burying in the ground. The seeds should be watered at least for a month. The germinated and grown seedling approximately after 3 months is dug out. The hard shell will hold the edible endosperm. The fleshy bottom portion is called as ‘Kilangu’ which is boiled and eaten. It is a healthy food. The cost of a Kilangu at present is Rs.1.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT IN PALMYRA TAPPING: Palmyra tapping is rather an unlucky occupation as through the ages there is no technological advancement to ease the strenuous physical work of the tapper. Ever since the start of the occupation, a tapper has to climb manually tree by tree to accomplish his work. Some of the present day tapper wears a chest protection leather mat as chest gear and one small leather sheet as ankle gear tied to each toe finger. These gears prevent scratches to his body parts from the Palmyra trees.

SOCIAL LIFE OF PALMYRA TAPPERS: Palmyra tapping is an unattractive occupation. The Palmyra tapper in the present case study is 40 years old. He is the youngest man involved in this occupation in this small village. Others are older than him. An active man in this occupation may do the tapping work until the age of 65 years. During the recent years, no family is allowing their children to involve in this work. They like their children as laborers in petty shops or in some industries than as a Palmyra tapper. The faces of ladies involved in Karuppatti preparation become black due to daily boiling of Pathaneer. No body is willing to give bride to a tapper bridegroom. While a laborer bridegroom fetches 40 sovereign of gold with a bride, a tapper bridegroom may fetch around 8 sovereign of gold only. .During the days of heavy wind, the tapper’s life is in great danger. Now a days, there is lack of interest to grow Palmyra trees. The heights of older trees are more. Hence the climb time became more and the yield of juice is less. When a tapper is involved in tapping of trees in the remote forest area, he has to shift his family to the remote forest into a temporary hut for a period of at least 6 months without the facilities of electricity, drinking water etc. Hence the education and health of his children are hampered.

GOVERNMENT WELFARE SCHEMES: During the regime of Shri.K.Kamaraj as chief minister of Tamilnadu, a tapper has to take a license for his occupation. But during the regime of Shr.M.G.Ramachandran as chief minister of Tamilnadu, the license system was abolished. At present, to become a member in the Palmyra tapper welfare scheme, one has to take a license paying a fee of Rs.275/- per two years. But, the benefits of welfare schemes are not known to the beneficiaries.

TODDY TAPPING MAY BOOST THE ECONOMY OF TAPPERS : As per the version of the present tapper, if the government allow toddy tapping as legal and purchase toddy from the tappers directly at a reasonable price, the living condition and the economic status of Palmyra tappers will be boosted to a greater extent.

FUTURE OF PALMYRA TAPPING: Palmyra tapping is an arduous work, involving heavy physical labour. During heavy windy seasons tappers are taking rebirth. A tapper can not take rest even in warranting situations during the tapping season. The labour of his family members too is warranted. His children’s future is at risk when he is working in remote area with his family. There is no remarkable technological advancement to ease his climbing work; as the inventions so far were not accepted by the tapper community. There is also no respect for a tapper in the society. In these situations, Palmyra tapping will have its natural demise and the Palmyra trees will be maintained for their other uses like ‘Nongu” and ‘Kilangu’. Future generation will look back the age old Palmyra tapping practice just as ‘Atlas demon is holding the globe’.