The Ownership and Harvesting Practices of the Mahua Tree

[Dhwani]

A tree with the most interesting ownership and harvesting practice. Each family has ‘their’ mahua tree and only that family can harvest the flowers from that particular tree. The fruit & seed, however, can be harvested by anyone and everyone. The tree itself may belong to a family, even if the land on which the tree stands isn’t theirs. Recently though the ownership of the tree has been tied to the ownership of the land in many villages. Each tree differs in the time of the day (or night) during which the flowers shed. Being one of the major sources of livelihood for the tribal community, the Mahua season sees people going to the forest to harvest these flowers as early as 3 am, and returning several hours later.
This gigantic tree in the photograph is said to shed around 100 kilograms of flowers every day! It has been existence since the past 4 generations! When the owner of the land split the land between his two sons, the ownership of the flowers from that one single tree also split! One brother harvests from the part of the tree that sheds flowers on his part of the land, and the other brother from the other side.
Listening to such anecdotes is one of the most interesting aspects of being on the field!

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