Palm tree climbers sweat it out in a ‘dying’ trade

July 14, 2014 12:37 am | Updated 12:37 am IST - SAYALKUDI (RAMANATHAPURAM)

Ongole, Andhra Pradesh April 19,2013, Fridaycaption: A toddy tapper climbs down palmyra tree at dusk in fishermen hamlet of Chinnamgari palepalem near Kanaparthi in Prakasam district.photo: Kommuri Srinivas

Ongole, Andhra Pradesh April 19,2013, Fridaycaption: A toddy tapper climbs down palmyra tree at dusk in fishermen hamlet of Chinnamgari palepalem near Kanaparthi in Prakasam district.photo: Kommuri Srinivas

When the Tamil Nadu government formed the Palm Products Development Board in 1995, palm workers in this region honoured Congress leader Kumari Anandan, offering him palm jaggery of his weight, for espousing their cause. But not a single tree-climber has benefited from the board all these years.

About 10,000 families, living in more than 20 coastal villages of the Kadaladi block, make a living by climbing hundreds of trees for tapping ‘neera’ and making palm jaggery. Almost all of them are working as a kind of bonded labourers for big traders.

Men, bare-chested and barefooted, climb palm trees twice a day to tap palm juice, while women prepare jaggery from February to August. They live in miserable conditions to pay back the loan taken from the traders.

Three members of a family toil for over 12 hours a day to make one ‘sippam’ (10 kg) of jaggery, which can fetch Rs. 600-Rs. 1,000, depending upon the demand. And the family lives in make-shift huts in the palm groves for the entire six months to earn Rs. 1.5 lakh.

“At the end of the season, all of us will have repaid our loans and will return home, but not before getting fresh loans from the traders to make ends meet during the next six months when there will be no work,” says V. Palpandi, 54, of Boopandiyapuram, near here.

When men of his age struggle to go for a walk, Palpandi climbs 50-60 trees a day. “It is risky and tiresome, but I have no option,” he says. “I have been climbing trees since I was 12,” he says, showing his hardened palms and foot, as his wife and daughter look on.

In the four decades, Palpandi has been under the grip of the traders who lend him money on an interest of two paise. He has registered himself with the local primary cooperative society and has obtained a licence from the district palmyrah jaggery cooperative marketing federation for tapping ‘neera,’ but has not availed himself of any financial or marketing assistance.

As most of the palm trees in the region stand on patta land, Palpandi and many others take 100 trees on lease from the land owners after paying them Rs, 6,000 a season. M. Thirumani, 34, a Class VI dropout, is the youngest tree climber in the region, and Mani Nadar, 72, is the eldest.

“In the next five to ten years, you will not find tree climbers, and palm jaggery, the nature’s gift, will become a scarce commodity,” says Thirumani.

Except a few, like P. Boominathan, who are engaged in jaggery sale, the present generation purses education and goes for other jobs.

When the trade is dying, the government can offer palm workers financial support as it does help out farmers, fishermen, potters and other rural workers, says V. Pandi, 55, of Selvanayagapuram, who has also been working under a trader for over four decades.

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