Amla (gooseberry) trees in parts of Karnataka have been facing anomalies in their flowering and fruit-bearing patterns lately.Seema S Hegde and Raghunandan S Hegde explore the reasons for the change.
The Indian gooseberry, popularly known as amla (Phyllanthus emblica) is a very versatile fruit.
Not only is it rich in Vitamin C, it is also well-known for its medicinal properties and wide usage in Ayurveda. In addition to this, it is used in many home remedies and hair care products. It is also an essential culinary ingredient, especially in pickles.
Apart from having cultural and religious significance in Indian traditions, it is an important source of livelihood as a non-timber forest product, particularly to many tribal people.
The leaves of the tree are used as much in agricultural fields. And not to forget, a small packet of salted amla is a faithful companion during travel.
However, over the last few years, not all is well with amla trees. These trees generally bear flowers during the earlier part of spring.
Fruits are borne during winter and they ripen by the time of Deepavali. But lately, the cycle seems to have been disrupted.
Until recently, fluctuations in the growth of the species were not noticed. It was only during last spring, did we start observing changes in the flowering and fruit-bearing pattern of amla trees in our village (in Sirsi taluk, Uttar Kannada district) and surrounding villages.
Our observations began when we noticed the death of many trees in our village, for no apparent reason.
Amla trees are known for their property of coppicing (regrowing after cutting) even when the branches are cut completely. Hence, it was alarming to see the entire tree go dry and stand dead within a year’s time, without being subjected to any external damage.
It is clearly evident that the life-cycle of the trees has been disturbed. We took note of five distinct changes in the pattern.
Firstly, many trees do not flower during spring time, but during winter. The flowers wither after a few months. They also go without bearing fruits.
Secondly, even if some trees succeed to flower during spring, they fail to bear fruits.
Third, some of them flower during spring and bear a few fruits, but flower again during winter.
Finally, both fruits and flowers fall off. Fourth, many of them flower during the right time and bear fruits, but fruits fall off when they are very young.
Fifth, a few trees withhold fruits till they are mature, but the number of berries per branch are few and are small in size, when compared with what the same tree used to bear a few years ago.
Probable reasons
Although we cannot come up with the precise reasons for drastic change that we are witnessing in the behaviour of amla trees, we have a few questions that could lead to further discussions and research on this matter, possibly resulting in a solution: Is it the most vulnerable species to climate change comparatively?
Does this species have low adaptability to climate change?
Has the pollinator loss impacted it more severely than all other species?
Has the changed rainfall pattern or increased temperature, impacted its flowering and fruit-bearing ability? Is there any severe parasitic attack on these trees due to changed climate?
We are afraid that the reasons could be all of these, or a combination of these, or even none of these.
There may be a different reason altogether or the reason may still be completely unknown.
Impact of changed behaviour
The changed behaviour has brought down the production of amla noticeably. Since amla is interlinked with aspects of our cultural, religious, medicinal, economic, and culinary life, it is bound to have an effect on all these spheres.
For instance, with a shortage in supply of amla, the price of Ayurvedic medicines with amla as ingredient will go up.
A similar scenario can be expected in the case of culinary and hair care products.
Even if we regard these market-linked impacts as superficial, because we have alternatives, what we probably cannot neglect is the serious impact of low regeneration of these trees on the biodiversity and ecosystem.
Someday, we may have to bring up the saplings in controlled laboratories if the natural regeneration in the forests becomes very low.
Need for research
With this piece of writing, we intend to draw the attention of scientists and researchers to undertake studies and come up with the reasons for changed behaviour of amla trees and also to come up with a solution.
It is also necessary to see if this change in behaviour is area-specific or prevalent in any other parts of the country.
We are also afraid that the change in behaviour and deaths of amla trees could be a signal of changing behaviour of many other trees due to climate change, which we are yet to witness.
We hope with adequate research, there are ways to protect amla trees before it is too late.