The Kattunayakan tribespeople, who live in the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, have now found a new way to supplement their meagre income.
They collect wild gooseberries from trees inside the sanctuary and the adjacent forests, including Mudumalai and Bandipur tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and sell them to motorists. A bag of Indian gooseberry or ‘Nellikka’ weighing about a kilogram is sold for ₹20 to ₹25.
Motorists passing through Kerala’s part of the Kozhikode-Kollegal National Highway 212 are peddled bags of gooseberry by the enterprising tribeswomen and children.
“There is fierce competition among tribespeople to collect gooseberry from the forest. Many a time we face protest from the forest officials in Mudumalai and Bandipur reserves,” Vasu, a tribal youth at the Ponkuzhi Kattunayakan settlement inside the sanctuary, said. One person sells one or two dozen bags a day, pocketing nearly ₹250 to ₹500. Though there are not many gooseberry trees in the sanctuary, they are found in abundance in the adjacent forest areas, Vasu said.
Gooseberry is a major ingredient in many Ayurvedic preparations, because of its health benefits, including boosting of immunity. The fruit contains high levels of Vitamin C. However, Forest Department or the Scheduled Tribe Welfare Department were yet to adopt any steps to collect the forest produce.
“Though the Forest Department collects honey from us and sell it after value addition, they are yet to collect gooseberry,” Sivaraman, a tribal youth, said. If the government collects the fruit at a minimum price, it would help us immensely, he added.
However, sanctuary sources said that they were not in a position to collect the berries since the tribespeople were collecting it mainly from the tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Moreover the berries had very poor shelf life, the source said.
