Gujarat’s ‘mad tree’ can be a good one too

Rajkot: The much-maligned gando baval or prosopis juliflora (PJ) — the invasive ‘alien’ weed that ravaged large swathes of traditional grassland in Kutch decimating livelihood of Banni people — may have the last laugh if a scientific paper can save its existence.
For years now, there has been a discussion to eradicate the weed to save the Banni grassland mostly under the demand of the locals. But, a paper recently published by GUIDE (Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology), suggested making a separate management policy for PJ, as the weed has the capacity to generate lakhs of employment and can usher in major change in the entire ecosystem of Kutch’s Banni land.
The paper suggests that PJ can be used in making bread, biscuit, syrup, coffee, cocktails and even brandy apart from its wood being used in making charcoal and generating electricity. It says that PJ’s multifarious usage is well known in various countries, though it has generated very little awareness about its full potential.
The paper published in Global Journal of Science Frontier Research suggested better usage with a policy intervention to generate new industry and new employment. It, however, stated that this option is very expensive and practically not possible looking at the experience of other countries.
Talking to TOI, one of the authors of this paper and director of GUIDE, V Vijay Kumar said, “We need to make a separate management policy for PJ. We have considered it an alien species but it has economic and environmental potential. We have to make a new management plan for PJ considering its positive and negative points.”
Kumar further said that proper planning can help generate massive employment opportunities and usher in economic development to the arid land.
Prosopis pods after removing the seeds are rich in protein and glucose. Pods could be useful for making cattle feed mixture, edible biscuits, energy tonic for old people and children, coffee, brandy, prosopis tree gum, but its products are not popular in India and for that spreading of awareness is necessary.
In 2009, GUIDE published a research paper named “Prosposis: Ecological, economic significance and management challenges” in which they mentioned the potential capabilities of gando baval . According to the paper, this is an invasive alien species that spreads rapidly — the only negative point of the plant species — but that if this could be controlled, mankind can reap huge benefits from it.
Its wood proved to be an important source of domestic fuel in rural households in the last century. The wood burns evenly and does not spark or smoke excessively and the calorific value of wood is quite high. The other use of gando baval wood is for charcoal and electricity generation. The biomass produced from it is used in electricity generation and can generate one MW electricity from 6,169 tonnes of fuel wood. The cost of power generation from PJ is also very cheap.
How did it reach India?
Gando baval first arrived in India in 1857 from Mexico. It reached Sindh, an arid region north of Banni (currently in south Pakistan) and then was also introduced to Andhra Pradesh by Jamaica in 1877. Later, PJ spread across many parts of the country from Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay and also introduced in Rajasthan’s Thar desert during 1930s to stabilize the sand dunes. This weed was introduced in Kutch in 1930s to fight desertification and by 2000, it covered 40 percent of India. With 43 million trees, PJ became the dominant tree species in Gujarat.
Rich ‘alien’ food
Pods of the tree are considered important human food item in Peru, Chile and Argentina. These have high calcium, thiamine and riboflavin content. Flour from PJ pods is used in preparation of sweet and syrup (thick, dark and similar to honey) and is widely used in north Peru to nourish children and the old and infirm. It’s also mixed with milk, fruit and corn flour for taste and flavour.