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The ‘Mad Tree’ That Sustains Gujarat's Vada Koli Community

The invasive species Prosopis juliflora is leading to degeneration of grasslands, but Gujarat's Vada Koli community depends on the tree, called ‘gando baval’, for their livelihoods.

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Gujarat's mad tree

The ‘Mad Tree’ That Sustains Gujarat's Vada Koli Community | Photo courtesy: Azera Parveen Rehman

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In Banni, in Gujarat's Kachchh district, one of Asia’s largest tropical grasslands is under severe threat from the invasive species Prosopis juliflora.

The gando baval, or the mad tree as it is locally called, was first introduced around the 1880s by the British, and has since taken over vast stretches of the country, including Banni's famed grasslands, and in the process has shrunk the space for native species, thus affecting the fodder supply of the largely pastoral community. But even as researchers, the forest department and others rue the shrub’s harmful effect on the ecology, the small community of Vada Kolis say that they are grateful to the ‘mad tree’, for it is one of their main sources of livelihood.

Gando baval is a very important part of our lives--it helps us earn a livelihood through our craft, charcoal making, honey collection,” said 30-year-old Vada Jentee Venkya, who belongs to the Vada Koli community. “I find it difficult to imagine what our lives would be without this tree.”

Gujarat's Vada Kolis: A Community on the Fringes

The Vada Kolis, according to researcher Ramya Ravi of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), are a socio-economically disadvantaged community, counted among the most marginalised in the region. “Traditionally, the Vada Kolis were hunter-gatherers," Ravi said. "But with more awareness and the forest department becoming more vigilant, this practice has waned. They now mostly work as labourers, looking after the livestock of the pastoral community, in charcoal making, resin collection, and so on.” The community is also known for its expertise in wood work.

The word Vada, said Paresh Mangalia, deputy director of Khamir, an NGO in Kachchh that works on crafts and with craftsmen, means one who works with wood. “So Vada Kolis are a community who have a long-standing tradition of working with wood.” Depending on what they have to make, a particular tree is chosen. “Mostly they make everyday utility items from Acacia nilotica, which is a native species, but also from Prosopis juliflora, or the gando bava

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