Even as Tamil Nadu wages a war on seemai karuvelam by attempting to banish the invasive tree species from the State, western Rajasthan has been trying to accept the reality that the mesquite is not going away anytime soon.
To this end, the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) in Jodhpur has been running a project to use powdered Prosopis juliflora pods as a substitute for wheat bran in cattle feed mix.
“The false impression of Prosopis juliflora till now has been that it is a horribly invasive and useless species in most parts of the world. This is perhaps due to the ignorance of its multiple uses,” says a 2013 paper authored by CAZRI scientists which calls the karuvelam a “miracle species.”
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The life of the karuvelam in Jodhpur — where it is called vilayati babul or baavlia — has been a tale of its fall from grace. After introducing the tree to the State by scattering its seeds from the air in 1913, the Maharaja of Jodhpur State declared karuvelam a Royal Plant in 1940. However, come 2006, the royal family itself had to uproot the tree from its backyard. “After trying several different methods without success, we employed Khandwaliya miners to use time-tested ways of manually chiselling into the hard, volcanic rock. We knew we had to go down at least 45 cm below ground-level to kill the baavlia,” says the website of the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, located next to the Mehrangarh Fort.
Those at CAZRI also want to check the karuvelam’s spread. “By collecting the ripened pods for grinding, we are attempting to prevent the new trees from coming up,” said B.K. Mathur, Head of the Livestock Production System and Range Management at the CAZRI. His project, which ran from 2009-’14, tried to get residents of a village in Nagaur district and a tehsil in Barmer to collect and use karuvelam pods. “Animals find it difficult to chew and digest the pods, so using a grinder — even a traditional one made of stone suffices — was the solution,” said Mr. Mathur.
Mr. Mathur’s study found that powdered karuvelam pods could constitute 20-30% of the cattle feed mix.
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“We studied the Tharparkar variety of cattle. It saved ₹137.50 per 50 kg for the farmer. Milk production increased 10-15% overall,” he said. The Principal Scientist said the popularity of his team’s innovation is on the rise — he was unable to give data on the number of sacks being used daily — but admitted that the project is yet to check the spread of the karuvelams.
“There are too many pods; we cannot collect them all. A single tree produces about 30 kg a year,” he said.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has estimated that the karuvelam provided approximately 75% of the fuel wood requirements of the rural people in arid and semi-arid regions of India. It also said that India could produce up to 250% of its current annual production of fuel wood from forest resources if the country planted karuvelams in arid and semi-arid tracts.
Despite contemporary infamy of the karuvelam, Mr. Mathur defended the actions of the Maharaja in 1913.
“If he hadn’t introduced the tree, all the slow-growing indigenous varieties would have been cut down for fuel by now. It also helped control soil-shifting by keeping sand dunes in place,” he said.
( This writer visited Rajasthan as part of a Press Information Bureau-organised delegation )