MP's tendu-patta auction rakes in Rs 38.85 cr profit

Tendu-leaf auction has left the state's kitty swollen by Rs 10.02 crore. Tendu patta are leaves of the Diospyros melonoxylon tree of the Ebenaceae family.

This year, the state has clocked a profit of Rs 38.85 crore through auctioning these leaves over the previous year's profit of Rs 28.83 crore.

According to Forest Minister Himmat Kothari, the profit may touch Rs 39.10 crore. In this season, 17.94 lakh standard bags of tendu leaves have been collected against 16.81 lakh standard bags collected last year.

"Other states have collected a much smaller quantity of tendu leaves. The combined collection of the country stands at 55.56 lakh standard bags this year," the minister said.

He added, however, that a sudden spell of rains during the last week of May had adversely affected the last leg of leaf collection. Normally, tendu leaves are collected in tribal-dominated areas.

An amount of Rs 71.76 crore has been paid as wages to tribal and rural labourers for plucking tendu leaves and an amount of Rs 22 crore has been invested in the treatment, transportation, storage and preservation of the leaves.

The government has paid an amount of Rs 2 crore as bonus to people engaged in collecting tendu. Chhatapur, Tikamgarh and the northern region of Sagar, are the main tendu-leaf collection districts.

A co-operative model is used for collection and trade of tendu. The Madhya Pradesh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Co-operative Federation Ltd, formed in 1984, involves co-operative societies in the trade.

Madhya Pradesh is the biggest tendu leaf-producing state in the country. The average annual production of tendu leaves in Madhya Pradesh is around 25 lakh standard bags, which is nearly 25 per cent of the total production in the country.

One standard bag of tendu leaves contains 1,000 bundles of 50 leaves each.

Tendu leaves are used as bidi wrappers in different parts of the country.