Tendu Patta/ Leaves (TL) is one of the most important sources of income for tribal communities and rural people living near forests in central India. It can provide up to 45 million person days per year. Apart from its importance in terms of employment generated, it contributes substantially to the state exchequers of states in Central India. Nearly 15 lakh families benefit from collection and trade of Tendu Patta In MP that accounts for 30% of total production in the country. The families together collect on an average 26 lakh standard bags of the leave.

Availability and Spread

The specie (inclusive of D. tomentosa and D. tupru) is one of the most characteristic trees of dry deciduous forests throughout India, covering entire Indian peninsula. It occurs as an associate of Sal and Teak, often replacing Sal in areas having poor site. Area of distribution extends up to Nepal in sub-Himalayan tracts including Indian plain, Gangetic plain, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, western coast up to Malabar and Eastern coast up to Coromandel. The plant is also available in Nilgiris and Serawalli hills in south.

Undivided MP is the leading producer of TL in India. Average annual production of leaves is nearly 45 lakh standard bags (1 standard bag equals 50000 leaves) that are nearly 45% of total TL production in country. As per available data in 1991, the circles presently in MP accounted for nearly 50 % of total production and 60 % of revenue collected from TL of undivided MP.

Phenology and Silviculture

Leaf collection work is seasonal lasting for about 6 weeks. Tendu plants are pruned in February and March, preferably before Holi and mature leaves are collected after about 45 days of pruning. Depending on geographical location of districts, the season may commence any time from middle of April to second week of May. Collection stops ten to fifteen days before onset of monsoon (usually mid June), so that leaves can be cured, bagged & safely transported to godowns.

TL is obtained from small trees and wildly growing bushes of Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb belonging to Family Ebenaceae, endemic to Indian sub-continent. The tree is moderate to large and occurs naturally on barren as well as cultivated soil, attaining a height of 20-25 m and a girth up to 2 m with cylindrical bole of 5-6 m under favourable conditions. It bears curvaceous leaves varying in size and form. Leaves are elliptical in shape and rounded at base, and vary from 10 to 30 cm in length. Lower side of the leaves is covered with woolly hair and possess 6 to 10 pairs of secondary nerves.

Seedlings are resistant to frost and droughts but are susceptible to excessively moist conditions. The tree coppices well, but coppice shoots slowly. It reproduces easily through root suckers that make it difficult to eradicate from wastelands. It pollards extremely well. Pruning is done to get new shoots and leaves.

Leaves from bigger trees are not suitable as they are tough. It is the small bushes from root suckers that yield most leaves for bidis as they are thinner, comparatively pliable and have less prominent nerves. The texture, venation and relative thickness of the mid rib and lateral vein of the leaves are of great importance. The leaf has to be plucked just after they have turned from crimson to bright green having leathery texture. Leaves are also collected from small trees, but are never collected from trees having girth more than 1 m. The most favourable requirements for Tendu leaves are - a. Large size, b. thin, c. plastic, d. preferably without tomentum, e. having no prominence of secondary nerves, f. capable of getting dried up without developing cracks g. retaining green colour.

Utilisation

Tendu Patta is considered the most suitable wrapper of Bidi on account of ease with which it can be rolled and its wide availability. Leaves of many other plants like Butea monosperma, Shorea robusta also find use as Bidi wrappers in different parts of country but texture, flavour, workability, resistance to decay, and fire-retaining capacity of Tendu patta is unmatchable.

Apart from leaves, most other parts of the tree have high economic and social value. Its timber is used for making posts, rafters, shafts and carts, plumber tools, textile shuttles, Indian ebony, agricultural implements and sports goods. Its fruit is edible. The bark, fruit, and leaves possess medicinal properties. Dried flowers of Tendu have curative powers in treating urinary, skin and blood diseases. The bark has astringent properties and its decoction has been used to treat diarrhoea and dyspepsia. The bark also contains tannin up to 19%.

Collection and Processing

Procedure for collection and processing of Tendu leaves is standardised and almost same procedure is followed across states. The leaves are plucked manually form natural vegetation, standing trees or bushes.

The forest department informs villagers to prune Tendu bushes so that leaves will be ready for collection in April/ May. This is also information through which villagers come to know that leaves will be collected from concerned area. Estimation and target of Standard Bags to be collected is done as per region wise previous 5 year production. This is vital as collections are usually done not as per potential but as per target. Even budgets for pruning is decided on the basis of targets fixed.

Pruning provides vital employment opportunity to some labour. The forest department allocates Rs. 10 per SB of target of KL to be collected in a region. Plucking provides work during lean agricultural season, and is therefore important to landless agricultural labourers in vicinity of Tendu growing areas. The process of plucking involves four steps - walking to and fro from Tendu growing area, plucking of leaves, sorting and tying in small bundles and delivery of the bundles at collection centres.

Villagers go to forest to collect Tendu leaves early in the morning around 4 o' clock and return only in the noon. Family members engaged in the activity gather leaves and bring it to their house. Post lunch, it is mostly women and children who bind leaves into guddies (bundles) of 50 leaves. 1000 such bundles make a standard bag (SB). Later in the evening, bundles are taken to collection centre popularly known as phad, where a phad Munsi counts number of guddies and enters the number into his/her records and also in collection cards of villagers. After 3 - 4 days of collection, villagers are informed to stop collection for 2 days. In the mean time plants again can produce good quality leaves.

The bundles are then spread on ground with dorsal side up for drying and are turned upside down after 3-4 days for another similar duration. Care has to be taken to save it from moisture; hence a plastic sheet covers the ground before leaves are spread. Dried leaves are sprinkled with water to soften them and then filled tightly in jute/ gunny bags and exposed to direct sunlight for 2 days. Water is usually sprinkled on dry leaves after sunset and leaves are packed before dawn. Bags thus packed and cured can be stored till they are sold. Moisture control is very necessary for safe keeping of leaves, and for this 6-10 inches of paddy husk is spread on ground. The bags are stacked in such a manner that a speedy retrieval is possible with a brick stacking design. After necessary processing at the phad level, TL bags are stored at the district level godowns till it is auctioned.

Great care is needed while plucking, curing and storage of Tendu leaves. It is a sensitive product and with slight mistakes or oversight during any of these processes, quality deteriorates rendering them unfit for making Bidis. If leaves are not properly dried and moisture is not reduced, leaves get blackened and affected by moulds. Leaves affected by moulds carry foul odour and are not suitable for making bidis. Similarly over dried leaves is too brittle resulting in loss during handling.

On an average a household plucks 100 - 130 bundles of leaves in 12 hours depending on location of house in relation to availability of bushes. A family in a day can earn a maximum of Rs 60 per day. Most family members except small children are engaged during the season in work. Now usually in a season, a collector engages herself around 10 days in collection of Tendu leaves.

For administration of collection, processing at the phad level and wage payment, a phad Munshi is appointed. The phad Munshi takes responsibility for drying the leaves, pack it and send to the godown. In the phad, it is the phad Munshi who checks quality of leaves, counts no. of guddies and enters it in respective card books.

Each primary society appoints a Manager to regulate cash flow to phad Munshi and for other day-to-day management. The manager is a salaried staff of PCS for whole year. The salary is fixed as per SB estimation. In addition to salary he receives commission on collection of other nationalised produces. This year, teachers have been given responsibility in some areas by the forest department for quality checking and day-to-day activities.

Bidi Rolling

Bidi manufacturing started in MP at Jabalpur in 1906. It is a source of subsidiary occupation and supplementary income to Lakhs of poor rural folk. In certain tracts of undivided state, it provides employment to nearly 60 percent of the rural population. Obviously, bidi industry has a vital role in rural welfare and in promoting rural economy. About 75 percent of Tendu leaf production of the state is consumed within the state for manufacture of bidis.

However, a difficult situation has arisen after division of state. Whereas MP produces nearly same amount of TL as that of Chhatisgarh, it has all the bidi manufacturing facilities. As per data available (of 1991), the present Chhatisgarh had only 0.04 % (3393 out of 77,56,042 units) of the total bidi manufacturing facilities. Now when Chhatisgarh aspires to have manufacturing units in the state this will definitely affect rural employment opportunities in MP.

As per traders, Bidi trade has declined 40% over last 10 - 12 years, where as another information says that Bidis have become a fashionable item in some western countries, notably USA.

Production and Pricing

Figure : Production Figures of Kendu Leaf

The detailed production and revenue figures have been given in Annexure #3. Production and collection of TL has revealed 3 distinct phases. The first phase started in 1964, when leaves collection ranged between 2.1 to 2.6 million standard bags. The collection increased at the rate of 1%. The second phase started in 1980 where sharp fluctuations were evident, but collection more then doubled from 3 million standard bags in the beginning of the decade to a record 7 million SB in 1988. But after the co-operatisation of the trade, collection has taken a dip till 1997 and has now stabilised between 4 - 5 million SB.

Federation before start of the season announces collection rates. Before co-operatisation, prices remained low. This is clear as prices were raised from Rs. 85 to 150 in 1989, the year of co-operatisation. Prices have been raised every 2-3 years since 1989. The price for plucking was Rs. 400 in collection season 2002 in MP. As per provisions, TL collected from private land is supposed to get Rs. 25/ SB more then the above price but for that Tendu tree growers need to register themselves with the forest department. Practically no such cases were found during our survey. Many primary collectors in the villages are not even aware about the rule. Again it's a very difficult job to get the lands registered in revenue department

As can be observed from the figure below, average sale realisations have consistently risen apart from two exceptions (1990 and 2000). The sale price determined by the tender/auction varies between district unions and units. Currently they range between Rs. 800 to Rs. 1600 depending on quality. It is also clear from the annexure that whenever the prices have hit their peak, the collectors' share in the revenue has hit the bottom, even after payment of bonus. There is an exceptional case in 1989, in the first year of co-operatisation when the primary collectors received a huge amount as bonus.

Figure : Collection Wages vs. Avg. Sale Price

Trade Aspects

TL was the first produce to be nationalised in the state and has an elaborate system of collection and trading. The undivided state was divided into TL units on basis of production, numbering 972 in 1965, the first year of nationalisation; and were reorganised into 1826 in 1984. A purchase and agent system was in force till 1979. In 1980 this was replaced by lump sum sale that resulted in increase of production and royalty money. In 1984, MFP (Trade and Development) Co-operative Federation Ltd. was established to deal with nationalised NTFP. The federation however became fully operational in 1989. Details about the federation and its operation are dealt with in a later section.

Out of the total fund required for leaf procurement federation borrows 75% of requisite amount from banks at prime lending rates and it itself invests rest 25% margin money. Federation sells the leaves by process of auction or tender. Most of the traders who purchase Tendu leaf from federation are commission agents. They attend auction/ apply for tender to purchase from federation. Once bought, the leaves are transported from federation godown to Mandi area in towns. Traders also do grading at this stage and store it till they find right buyer. They further sell TL to Bidi industries of West Bengal, and South India. The commission agents pay a tax of 25.4 % over and above the bid price that includes income tax. There might be one or two levels at this stage, depending on where bidi manufacturers are based. On an average, it takes up to 2 years to completely dispose of a years' stock.

There is one more aspect to the TL trade. Government till recently was earning significant revenues from the trade. Though in the first decade, the net revenue to the government hovered between Rs. 7 to 20 crores, in the 90s, the net revenue touched to the level of more then 100 crores. The highest revenue was in the year 1989, when net revenue touched 290 crores. Significantly, the net revenues took a sharp dip after that year not to recover to those levels. The sales realisations also took a sharp dip after the first year of co-operatisation only to recover to the same levels after 10 years.

It is probable that requirement of Tendu leaves for bidi manufacture within state and in other parts of the country has stabilised. Since all states where the leave is available have organised collection and disposal of leaves, it is felt that not much could be expected over and above present level of production and net revenue to the state (Prasad and Bhatnagar, 1991). Of course all this has changed after change in structure of incentive wages in 1998. And with the changed context, all the money is now supposed to flow to people.

Miscellaneous

Incentive Wages

In the first year of co-operatisation, there was additional revenue of Rs. 290.04 crores, of which Rs. 150 crores was distributed in four instalments through accounts of pluckers opened in local branches of Cooperative Banks or credit societies as per recommendations of Dillip Singh Bhuria Committee. This payment was discontinued from 1990 season and was again started from 1995. For 1995 to 1997 seasons, nearly 20% of net income was paid as incentive wages.

As a consequence of 73rd Amendment to Constitution, State Government decided to pass on all the net income from NTFP trade to societies (described later). The incentive wages are only distributed to cardholders. The incentive wages for a particular procurement year is distributed 2-3 years late, as that is the time it takes to dispose off TL collected and hence audit to get completed.

Source: MPMFP Federation Website

Pluckers’ Welfare

• In case of death of any plucker covered under this scheme by natural cause, his nominee is paid Rs. 3500/-.
• In case of disability due to accident, the plucker is paid an amount of Rs. 12500/-
• In case of death or permanent disability caused due to accident related to Tendu leaves, the amount of insurance is Rs. 25000/-.

Sunstroke, snakebite, beer attacks are some of the dangers that collectors face during collection of Tendu leaves. Though collectors are aware about existing insurance policies, getting money in case of death is very difficult. They generally take the help of panchayat members to help in the process.