TASTE IT RED

Popularity of Karnataka's red jackfruit shows how biodiversity can be conserved by ensuring that communities benefit from it

SHREE PADRE

FOR GENERATIONS, a handful of households in Karnataka's Tumakuru district have been closely guarding a hidden treasure. It is a jackfruit variety that yields delectable bulbs, with pleasant aroma and colours ranging from copper red to bright orange. Until a decade ago, few from outside the villages knew the whereabouts of the plants or their custodians.

Once in a while, as the summer season progressed, one would come across vendors selling on the roadsides the fleshy bulbs, referred to as chandra halasu in Kannada. Even they would not reveal details about the growers. So, for Ganesan Karunakaran, principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, it took a great deal of effort and years of visits to households across Tumakuru to bring the variety to the limelight. Today, the plant is being grown across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha on about 2,000 hectares. It has also emerged as an example of how biodiversity can be conserved by ensuring that communities and traditional custodians of the biological resource benefit from it.

"I had only heard about chandra halasu before joining IIHR'S Hirehalli regional station in Tumakuru. At Hirehalli, when I tasted the fruit for the first time, from a roadside vendor, I could not resist my temptation to eat more and know more about it," he says.

"There are several red jackfruit varieties in Hirehalli. But farmers were not willing to show us their trees. At best, they would offer us a fruit," recalls Karunakaran. Their fear was that if trees are exposed, scientists would propagate the varieties, which would hamper their interest. This is when Dinesh MR, then director of IIHR floated an idea. IIHR organised a "jackfruit diversity fest" at Hirehalli. Prizes were promised for the best fruits. The fest saw a huge turnout.