The ban on manufacture and sale of gutkha in several states has hit the livelihood of kewda cultivators in Odisha’s Ganjam district. Around three lakh people who depend on kewda plucking and cultivation in the district are affected by the ban.
The oil of this thorny flower is used in gutkha production across the country. The kewda oil is extracted by processing the flowers in the distilleries. Around 200 processing units, locally known as bhatis are engaged in processing the flowers. The kewda flower and the oil processed from it generate business of Rs 100 crore in the district annually.
Since a large number of gutkha industries have closed down following ban on this product in several states, most of the kewda processing units in Ganjam have also stopped their operation. There were over 250 processing units in the district about three to four years ago, the number has come down to barely 15 to 20 now.
“The entire chain has been disrupted and the kewda farmers in Ganjam district have been hit hard’ said Natabara Sahu, one of the bhati owners.
Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Maharastra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Hariyana have banned gutkha sale in their states and Gujarat and Himanchal Pradesh have announced to follow soon. The ban has also been imposed in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh.
“At this juncture, we are going through a very bad time and looking for some alternative way to sell our products,” the flower puckers said.
Recently hundreds of farmers had staged demonstration in front of a processing unit at Kanamana near Chhatrapur demanding procurement of kewda flowers from them at remunerative price. Since only one unit is running in the area, its owner refused to procure more flowers citing limited capacity. “We had to interfere to solve the matter,” said Ashok Parida, inspector in charge, Chamakhandi police station.
A delegation of CPI, led by former MLAs, Biswanath Sahu and N Narayan Reddy have also submitted a memorandum to the district administration urging them to solve the problem of the kewda cultivators.
The flower is grown in at least four coastal blocks of the districts; Chhatrapur, Rangeilunda, Ganjam and Chikiti with 30 km radius, while it is the source of livelihood for 50,000 families.
The kewda flower was an issue, when the Tata Steel wanted to set up a mega steel plant at Gopalpur in mid-1990s over 3,000 acres of land, mainly comprising kewda growing areas. The people of the area had strongly opposed the land acquisition process for the project fearing loss of livelihood from kewda flower plucking.
