Keonjhar: The yellow flowers below the mahua trees are a feast for the eyes and the flowers at times are the only source of income for forest dwellers here.
Every morning children and elders go into the forest with baskets and bags to collect mahua flowers.
Once they are back at home, they lay the flowers under the sun to get them dried. Once the flowers are dried, they are ready for sale.
The sale of the dried flower fetches an income to forest dwellers for three to four months. The flowers can also be used as a food item.
People, particularly in hilly regions, prepare delicious cakes by using the flowers. Some use the fried flowers as a side dish to the main course.
However, income from sale of dried mahua flowers is meagre due to interference of middlemen.
Often people sell the flowers to middlemen at throwaway price due to the lack of awareness. The price of mahua flowers is fixed by the panchayati raj department.
Middlemen often make money while the people who collect the flowers from forests and dry them have to settle for meagre earnings.
Earlier, forests used to have a number of mahua trees, but due to indiscriminate mining activities in Bansapal, Telkoi, Sadar, Patna, Harichandanpur, Jhumpura, Ghatagaon and Joda blocks in the district, the number of trees has been dwindling.
Forest dwellers use whatever earnings they get from sale of mahua flowers to survive. They buy clothes, grocery and other essentials for the family with this money.
“When you compare their labour with whatever they are get from the sale of flowers, one could say their earnings are inadequate. They get benefits only when they get a fair price for their collection,” tribal leader Subarna Nayak said.
“A mahua flower trader has to get a licence to carry on the trade. But on occasions, the flowers are collected illegally and smuggled. This apart, due to rampant mining activities, the number of Mahua tree is getting lesser. These trees do not come under species planted by afforestation divisions. Soon the mahua trees will be extinct,” said Panchanan Khamania, a resident of Bansapal area.
“Mahua flower business is profitable. The government also earns revenue from it. Hence, there are restrictions on their collection,” said Additional District Magistrate Bhakta Charan Pradhan.
PNN
