Siali leaf (Bauhinia Vahlii) is an important
NTFP of central and southern Orissa. The leaf is mostly used
locally by the grocery shops, petty hotels etc as plates and
packing material. In the local market it is more precious
than the sal leaf. In the rural areas of Ganjam, Gajapati
and Phulbani the plates made of siali leaf is largely being
used during the community feasts. The leaf has a fairly good
market in Vizag, Srikakulum and Vizianagaram districts of
Andhra Pradesh. After the NTFP policy of March 2000, its management
has been transferred to Gram Panchayats. The importance of
the leaf in the socio-economic life of poor tribal is evident
from the following narration.
| "I have been stitching Siali
leaves since I was a kid when my mother was involved
in collecting, stitching and selling Siali leaves for
sustenance", says Mamata Pradhan, 18-year Kondh
girl of Kandabada village, Raikia GP of Raikia block,
Phulbani district. She recollects how she learnt the
art of collecting Siali leaves from forest and stitched
them as a young trainee. As a kid, I remember getting
up early in the morning to accompany my mother for Siali
leaf collection. We start around 4 AM in the morning
and since Siali trees are only available in the relatively
dense areas of the forest, we mostly travel 15 to 20
kms to Kuasor parbat in Daringibadi area for a greener
and thicker patch where collection of leaves is easier
because of availability. This process of leaf collection
goes on throughout the year except during paddy sowing
i.e. July - August.
The whole process of Siali leaf plate
making takes around 3-4 days and fetch per individual,
i.e. one head load is around 10 chakis (leaf equivalent).
Drying takes one day provided there is sun and the weather
is not cloudy. Normally on the 3rd day, stitching starts
and one adult can stitch around 2 chakis a day. In a
week, one family on an average can stitch 10 chakis
of Siali plates, which means an income of Rs. 60/- per
week and Rs. 240/- per family per month from Siali leaf
plate making (the State Government rate is Rs. 6/- per
chaki).
Apart from the difficulties we face
because of large-scale forest depletion, many a time
we are unnecessarily harassed by AMCS counter at Raikia
(it is to be noted here that now AMCS has defunct because
of several reasons). Though we have hardly any complains
as regards payment of declared rates but we face a lot
of difficulties due to their arbitrary decision about
the quality of the plates. Our problem is that we cannot
approach anyone for our grievances. Whatever they say
about the quality of the plates is sacrosanct. We are
also cheated in the counting of chakis that is corroborated
by the local NGOs like Vikash Bharati. According to
them since when AMCS started appointing (unofficially)
Kumutis from Berhampur as sublease agents, this problem
of cheating in counting has started. |
Following figure gives the trade channel of
Siali leaf from Kandhamal, one of the major districts producing
the leaf. Tadapalligudam in AP is one of the important destinations
from Kandhamal. This gives an indication of the extent of
spread of Siali leaf trade, Chennai being one of the primary
users of the leaf from Orissa.
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