CHENNAI: Tamarind price hike as trees cut for wider roads

picture source:www.trekearth.com/

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on January 7, 2011:

CHENNAI: After onions and tomatoes, it is tamarind prices that have skyrocketed. In the past eight months, the state saw a 200 per cent rise in tamarind prices, and this has been attributed mainly to the recent heavy rains. However, there is also another unlikely culprit: road widening work by State and National Highways departments.

Over the past decade, an estimated 60 to 70 per cent of tamarind trees that grace most highways in the south have been axed to make way for expansion of roads, resulting in decreased production of the fruit commonly used in its dried form in southern cuisine.

In March last year, a kg of tamarind was priced (retail) at Rs 35. By December, it touched Rs 105.

About 10,000 to 15,000 tamarind trees were cleared for road-widening projects in the state in the past 10 years, with a similar number of trees being cut down in neighbouring Andhra and Karnataka.

Speaking to Express, S P Soruban, a tamarind wholesaler in the city, said, “Though we can’t blame the felling of road-side tamarind trees alone for the price rise — the price tripled in the last eight months — it certainly was a major reason.” Recent rains also prevented farmers from harvesting and drying tamarind crop.

According to market sources, a full-grown roadside tamarind tree gives a yield of about 200 kg per year, which the local bodies auction on an annual basis.  Traders hope prices will slide by end-January with the arrival of new yield.