Subhasis Mahato,
Email: subhasis.prl@gmail.com
(Department of Forestry, P.R.M.S. Mahavidyalaya, Boragari, Jamboni, Bankura, West Bengal – 722150,)
Tulika Panda
(Department of Forestry, P.R.M.S. Mahavidyalaya, Boragari, Jamboni, Bankura, West Bengal – 722150,)
Rajasri Ray
CEiBa, West Bengal
Sukhan Majhi was observing his small hut. The hut looks refreshing and a newly built one after repair work, application of fresh mud layer, and neatly done decorations around the doors and windows. He was silently appreciating the hard work his wife Fulmani and daughters Sabita and Duli did in the last week. It’s the mid-October morning, clear sky with beaming sunlight, a tinge of cold air, and a bright green forest promising a beautiful day ahead. Sukhan was in the thought of a couple of things, especially about the financial plan for the coming time ahead. He was waiting for his wife and daughters to come back from the forest where they have gone early morning to collect Sal leaves.
It was 10.00 a.m. and the sun was intense. Fulmani was tired inside the forest
but still, there was no way to leave. She has to fill up the gunny bag with the Sal leaves as much as possible. Sabita and Duli were there to help but still, a dense forest with a half-empty stomach was not an easy way to go. Like them, other women were also in the forest collecting Sal leaves, so one has to be fast to fill up her quota. Duli was looking for young neem tree/bamboo bushes so that she can collect the young pedicels and branches from where she and her sister can make threads for sewing the Sal leaves. Both the sisters were thinking about going home early so that they can meet their friends to spend a merry time.
It was 12.00 o’clock, and Fulmani was busy preparing the simple meal, 
Sukhan along with his daughters checked the collected Sal leaves for any odd ones and was removing the dirt as much as possible. He was calculating the number of probable plates and bowls made out of these leaves and the money earned from those. He was also planning to approach Budhan, the village head, for using the leaf plate-making machine to sew the leaves neatly with the threads to make the plates more durable and appealing. Otherwise, Balaram, the local trading agent will take the manually stitched plates and his people will sew two plates together to make a more durable Thalipatta for selling in a higher price range. For his manually stitched plates, like the previous year, he is expecting Rs. 300-350/- for every 1000 plates from Balaram, although a little more can be possible if he can go to the city directly.
At 3.30 p.m., Fulmani and her daughters were busy arranging the leaves as per their size, removing the dust, and keeping everything handy for their next day’s work. For the next couple of days, they will be busy sewing 4-6 leaves with thin fibers extracted from Neem leaves (Neem Kharka) or young bamboo stem to make Sal plates or Siyapatta and small bowls made up of two leaves known as Dona. It is up to their skill and promptness that the number of plates will be ready for market in the season. For the next couple of days, their morning will start with spreading the prepared plates in front of the house for drying under the sun. This phase lasts up to 3-4 hours after that they will take the dried plates inside the house because over-drying may make the plate brittle and disqualified for further use. However, drying under the sun makes the leaves fungus-free and removal of excess moisture. Apart from this, plate and bowl making will go simultaneously in the house. At night, they will keep the products out in a secure place to capture a little moisture. This routine will go on for nearly 3-4 months.
This avid description of activities around Sal leaves is a common picture across the Sal forest areas of the Chotanagpur plateau, starting from Bankura, Purulia, and Jhargram of the state of West Bengal to Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and 
part of the state of Odisha. Sal leaf plate (from the Sal tree, scientifically known as Shorea robusta) is one of the major non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and is contributing significantly to the forest-based economy, especially for forest and fringe area communities. However, behind this green product, the human association is very complicated. Sukhan and people like him are on one end of the chain whereas the chain continues through Balaram the local agent, city trader, higher level businessman, and ultimately consumers like us. In addition to them, there are government regulations on forest resource use, a mandate on sustainable resource management, and local-level monitors like the forest department. The network of traders and price regulations are varied from place to place. Unlike earlier times, present-day state interventions and environmental consciousness among people stimulate the demand for these biodegradable products thus resulting in comparatively better price options for Sukhan and his community. However, price apart, procurement of the Sal leaves, storage of the end products, and quality maintenance are a few issues one has to keep in mind across the region.
The Sal tree is like a lifeline for people like Sukhan. It is assumed that ~ 20-30 million people are directly dependent on the Sal leaf economy in the central Indian region, the number could be more but not less. Sal is famous for its high-quality timber but that is mostly for mainstream society. The leaf, fruit, seed, and resin (Indian or Bengal Dammar) play crucial role in the livelihood of the millions of tribal people across the central Indian plateau. For Sukhan and his people in Bankura, Sal seed is another important resource for their livelihood. Come May-June, the forest floor is heaped with brown winged Sal fruits that appeared like rusty flowers. Young children are playful with those whirlwind fruits. Seeds are profuse in numbers, therefore providing adequate supply for both humans and forests. These seeds are a valuable resource for the fat which is used as vegetable oil, a replacement for cocoa butter thus sought after by the industries as well as villagers. Villagers both men and women even children go to the forest to collect Sal seeds along with the leaves as selling the seeds at a rate of Rs. 8-10/kg to the local traders is a preferred choice for them. Sukhan and other fellow villagers on average collect 2 large gunny bags of seeds each day depending on the area and availability.
Like Sal leaves, seeds also require a little processing before heading to the market. Seed cleaning is the foremost step after collection. One has to remove sand, stone dust, etc. from the seeds to prevent them from rotten or getting infested by the fungus. The next step is dewinging the seeds. Women from Sukhans’ village usually select a
wide clean place near their house to spread the seeds and then hit the seeds with a flat wooden stick to separate the wings from the main seed body. The main seed body mostly consists of Kernel, rich in vegetable fat which has high economic value. It is the dewinging process that often cracks the seed and exposed the kernel out of the seed coat. Across the region, the manual dewinging process by wooden stick is broadly followed despite time-consuming and laborious it is. However, in recent years, a couple of Sukhans’ neighbours and a few from other villages adopted a new method for dewinging which is comparatively faster and less intensive but requires promptness. They usually spread the winged seeds on the highway and wait for the heavy vehicles to pass by which results in the dewinging of a large number of seeds at once due to the pressure exerted by their wheels. The process is advantageous because not only dewinging but kernels are also exposed due to cracking of the seed coat. Thus the extra labour for kernel extraction can be avoided and the whole day’s manual work is reduced to 1-2 hours.
Sukhan and his community acknowledge the recent improvement in the price rate for their Sal-based products in comparison to the earlier days. They also have access to leaf plate-making machines which help them to produce plates with better quality and higher in number. However, they have challenges too. Transportation and storage are persistent major issues. Sukhan himself discarded two bundles of previous years’ unsold Sal plates due to the change in texture and damage done by the rats. Government and NGO interventions are limited to certain areas. Therefore, the supply chain is still very much dependent on private traders which mean exploitation at every level. Lacking storage facility affects the quality of the products viz., Sal plates and cups change their vivid colour and texture as time passes by, similarly, seed kernels increase free fatty acid levels if are not dried and stored properly. There are other plant competitors too like Siyali (Bauhinia vahlii), and Areca nut (Areca catechu) from other regions with stronger textures and varied decorations. Synthetic products like plastic and thermocols flooded the market with their cheaper price and round-the-year availability. Not only Sukhan, but Balaram the local agent also feels the heat. He has seen the new types of plates with varied designs in the cities but it is difficult to implement in his area as skilled personnel or trainers are not available. There is an urgent requirement of adopting new techniques, designs, and innovative ways to increase sales.
Sukhan’s elder daughter Sabita learned the Sal leaf work from her parents. She regularly ventured into the forest, collects leaves and seeds during the seasons, made plates and cups, etc. Sometimes she feels distressed due to the hard labor required for the work but she also feels excited to see how those plates are used in religious functions in temples, weddings, or any social gathering even in shops for food storage, exchange and consumption. Her school teacher informed them how these plant products become popular nowadays across the globe given environmental pollution and plastic menace. A large number of people especially urban dwellers seem to be more interested in organic biodegradable products to minimize their pollution footprint. Unknowingly or knowingly by following this age-old traditional practices Sabita and many others like her contribute towards a better world.
