A new saviour

Protecting Forests

Fuel-efficient driers have reduced firewood consumption in the villages of Western Ghats. Pandurang Hegde describes the advantages offered by this ingenious piece of technology

About 8000 families of forest dwellers become busy picking uppage (Garcinia gummi-gutta) fruit from the thick forest in the Western Ghats every monsoon. These ripe yellow fruits cover the entire ground like a blanket. After picking them, the villagers, mostly women, carry the heavy load back to their homes for processing. Uppage trees are endemic to Western Ghats and are found mainly in the hills and interior forest region.

The collectors have the tough task of carrying the collected fruits on their heads to their houses, through leech-infested paths. The trees bear fruit during the months of July and August. Due to high humidity, these fruits start decomposing quick and hence need to be processed instantly.

Traditionally, local people in Uttara Kannada district extract ghee (clarified butter) from the seeds of uppage. Forest dwellers, especially the tribal communities living in the Western Ghats collect uppage and process the rind. This processing of the rind is a tough task, mainly done by women. First, it is dried above open fire, until the rind loses its complete moisture content and turns black. This black rind is then ready to be sold. It is in great demand in Kerala, where it is used as a condiment, in fish and meat dishes.

The villagers also face a huge demand from various foreign countries, thanks to the magical obesity controlling powers of the fruit. But there is a downside to this flourishing business. The huge demand and traditional processing methods have put lot of pressure on the uppage resources in the tropical forests of Uttara Kannada.

At the cost of environment

According to an estimate by Karnataka Forest Department, almost 16 kg of fuelwood is collected from the forest to dry one kilogram of uppage fruit. That’s unfair to the forests. In order to address this issue, Prakruti, a non-governmental organisation based in Sirsi is installing fuel-efficient driers in remote villages under UNDP small grant project.

Mahadevi Rama Gowda of Karoor village in Sirsi taluk is using it for the past eight years. “I use the drier for almost two months to process uppage fruit during the rainy season. It not only helps in saving the firewood, but the final product of dried rind is of excellent quality, that helps me to earn higher price.”

The traditional open fire process has many flaws: it emits smoke, affecting the health of those who handle it and also adds to the carbon dioxide emissions of the environment. In many cases, due to open fire, the shed catches fire, destroying the entire produce. The quality is also inferior as 20 per cent of the final product is wasted and the final extraction of HCA (Hydroxycitric acid) is less due to uneven processing.

Fortunately, the drier addresses these issues adequately as the final product is of good quality and helps the forest dweller reduce his labour costs of fuelwood collection drastically.

Seetaram Hegde of Ensun Technologies based in Sirsi, has done the technical evaluation of the performance of these driers. He says, “ Every drier saves about four metric tonnes of fuel every year. Moreover, the drier consumes only six kg of wood, as opposed to 16kg by the traditional methods.”

Technology for the good

By installing these fuel-efficient driers, it is estimated that about 80,000 metric tonnes of firewood can be saved in Uttara Kannada district. The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is an additional benefit. Naturally, the intense pressure on the resources of the forest is reduced by a great extent. Also, the new method has also led to lessening of the burden on women, who don’t have to go through the laborious process of collecting wood during the rainy season.

But these utility items also have a drawback. They are costly. Laxmi Siddi of Sirasgaon village has been using the drier for the past four years and says, “It costs Rs 35,000 per drier and proves to be expensive for us. Prakruti helped us  install the drier by offering financial assistance. But the forest department should provide these driers free of cost or at a subsidised rate through village forest committees so as to save the fuel wood and forests.”

These driers can also be used for processing other agricultural produce like banana, jack fruit and kokum, helping the forest dwellers add value to the forest produce and get higher incomes. There is an urgent need to propagate the multi-utility aspect of such driers on a large scale by the concerned authorities. These driers contribute towards protecting the environment and biodiversity of the region and also boost the livelihood of the farmers.