The mahua ( Madhuca longifolia ) season is a short one, lasting two to three months. At the beginning of summer, these tall trees which are found across central India, drop their precious flowers.
Collection of the light yellow flowers is a festive occasion and entire families here in Chhattisgarh, including small children, can be seen at work – picking the flowers off the forest floor. “This is hard work,” says Bhupinder. “We collect
mahua
in the early morning and again in the evening.” From Chanagaon in Dhamtari district, he has come with his parents to help and it’s a festive atmosphere with so many people around.
During the season,
mahua’s
fragrance perfumes the area. Travelling from Dharamjaigarh in Raigarh district to Raipur, Chhattisgarh’s capital, below hundreds of
mahua
trees, villagers are busy collecting the flowers. They will be dried and stored and used to make flour, liquor and more.
“
Mahua
is the most important item we collect from the forest. It is used as food at the time of starvation. If one needs money, they can sell some
mahua
,” says Gangaram Painkra, a social activist and tribal leader from Ambikapur. He is referring to the dependence on the flowers to get people through lean times when wage work is not available.
'Mahua is the most important item we collect from the forest. It is used as food at the time of starvation. If one needs money, they can sell some'
“Tribal people enjoy liquor made from these flowers and it is an essential part of our worship rituals,” says Gangaram.
Long hours picking it off the ground is not without its problems and, “We get pain in our back, legs, hands, knees and waists,” points out Bhupinder.
The Chhattisgarh governments have fixed a minimum support price for the mahua flower at Rs. 30 a kilogram, or Rs. 3,000 for a quintal of the dried flower.
Besides the central Indian states of Chhattisgarh, mahua can also be found in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and even as far as Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Usha (extreme right) and her sisters Uma and Sarita (in yellow) are busy collecting mahua in the forest near Aamgaon
Usha filling up the tub with her collection of mahua flowers
Sarita (in yellow), the eldest child in the family, is studying in 2nd year BA. She has been collecting the flowers in this season, since she was a child. She says last year they had earned about 40,000 rupees from collecting mahua . Their entire family works on collecting it, including their parents and grandparents. Her sister Uma (red) is standing in the background
Sarita (in yellow) and Uma (red) picking up mahua flowers
A bunch of Madhuca longifolia flowers hanging from the tree
Collected mahua flowers
A young child busy collecting mahua with her mother and grandparents
A child searching for flowers on the ground
75-year-old Chherken Rathi is also busy in collecting mahua . She says she has been doing this since she was a child
Jalsai Rathi and his wife are collecting mahua from their own tree in their field
Jalsai Rathi and his family enjoying their collection of flowers in the morning sun
