Udupi: Harish Nayak -The Coconut Plucker who is in great demand


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By Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 15 April 2014: The acute shortage of labour in general and coconut pluckers in particular has led to desperation among the coconut growers not only in coastal Karnataka but more so in Kerala, the predominant coconut growing state in India.
 
With copra touching the magic figure of Rs. 100 per kilogram and general increase in coconut price due to comparatively less produce and higher demand this year, coconut growers want to make the best use of the market situation by harvesting mature coconuts and converting them into copra. However, the scarcity of coconut pluckers has been a constant worry to them. Hence, the few well-known coconut pluckers such as Harish Nayak, resident of Chakrabettu in Kattingeri near Moodubelle has been much in demand. Though Harish does not have a cell-phone, people who seek his service make it a point to contact him through known persons and book him in advance to pluck their coconuts. On the fixed day, the employers have to pick up Harish from a predetermined spot in Moodubelle township early in the morning by 8 am so that by 10 am he can complete his task of plucking the coconuts from around 10 trees so as to avoid the scorching heat of summer.
 
I had an opportunity of availing the service of Harish Nayak to pluck coconuts from around 20 trees, the task which he completed on two days with a gap of three days as he had promised others to get their coconuts harvested.
 
During my interaction with Harish I found that his family, that is, his parents and three siblings-one brother and two sisters had migrated to Kattingeri, his mother’s native place from Sakleshpur nearly twenty years earlier. Harish was around 14 years when he came down along with his parents and siblings.
 
Speaking about his skill of climbing coconut trees, Harish said that since early in his youth he has been climbing coconut trees even in Sakleshpur, the skill that he perfected since his arrival at Kattingeri. Basically, all the members of the family are daily wage earners. His three siblings have married and he, even though being the eldest has remained a bachelor.
 
When asked about his stamina and charges of climbing and plucking of coconuts, Harish who is presently 34 years old said that in his youth he used to climb 20 shorter and medium height coconut trees or twenty taller trees. He had started at the rate of Rs.5 per tree. Presently he climbs ten medium sized trees and rates vary from Rs. 35 to 50 per tree depending on the height. 
 
Harish is quite agile in his task. However, he halts when he gets tired and continues his task once he regains his stamina. Climbing coconut trees is quite strenuous and risky. He has to balance on the rope ring that he holds by his feet and with the help of the hands, one of which is used to hold the sickle, he has to move up in short upward jumps while hands hold the tree in grip. Pressing the feet to the surface of the tree he straightens his body and repeats the jumps till he reaches the top of the tree and plucks the dry and ripe coconuts with the help of the sickle.

 


 
As daily wage earner, Harish had worked with masons and had also tried his hand as tempo loader which he has given up. Presently for 6 months from December to May, Harish occupies himself with coconut plucking. He has been in demand for this task, besides his native village Kattingeri and Moodubelle, right from Udupi to Shirva and Belman. During monsoon he works as an agricultural labourer and also does other odd jobs.
 
When pointed out that there are certain machines which work as lifts and take the coconut plucker to the top of the tree, Harish says that such devices work very slowly and he prefers to use the traditional method of plucking coconuts.
 
With the passage of time there would be no coconut pluckers and coconut growers may have to wait till the coconuts fall off from the tree once they are completely dry or depend on the devices that help in climbing the trees as portable lifts. Modern youths are neither interested nor capable in getting trained as coconut tree climbers as they do not think that such hobby or task might take them to the top of the coconut tree but not to the top of their life as a career.
 
Due to the scarcity of coconut tree climbers, some time back Kerala’s industries department had opened a contest to anyone around the world who could devise a machine to reach coconuts at 30 metres. The amount of the prize was Rs. 10 lakhs. The Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem had said that current machines that operate at tree level were not good enough and had called upon anyone to develop a product that could be used to pluck coconuts standing on the ground. He had promised that the inventor of such machine would be given Ten Lakhs of rupees if his or her design was approved.
 
It is not known whether such a machine has been designed so far. Incidentally, in Thailand monkeys have been trained in certain places to pluck coconuts. In coastal Karnataka monkeys have become a menace to coconut growers as they damage tender coconuts…. Why not to turn these trouble makers into useful coconut pluckers…?

 

 

 

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Comments on this Article
Philip Mudartha, Mumbai Tue, April-15-2014, 12:13
I appreciate this anecdotal positive journalism. As author has pointed out, training monkeys as done in Thailand is an alternative. There are other engineering solutions (not a lift or a coconut harvester) which should be customized. One is to covert coconut farm into several circus tents, and employ an artiste to his act by jumping between trees. The farm owner can join in the fun as the joker. There are other working models in Brazil and Caribbean, where our MLAs had a study tour a few years ago. When next time your MLA visits seeking vote, ask for a demonstration...:P
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