The volume of Kendu leaves sold this year was worth over Rs 70 crore than 2020.
The plucking season started in April and engaged 766,698 people. Kendu leaves worth Rs 94.85 crore and Rs 82 crore were procured from Odisha in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
During the lean season of employment, in the months of April and May, villagers pluck the leaves from the nearby forests and supply to the kendu leaves organisation at a rate of Rs 1.20 per kerry. Their right to collect the leaves is defined under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
Around 20,000 semi-skilled labourers who bind the leaves also earn from the process betweenMay to October. They have already started work this year, said another forest officer.
The leaf gatherers received a 50 per cent bonus last year from the government and expect a higher share this year as the quality of the leaves are better, said Bijaya Mohanty, president of Odisha Kendu Patra Karmachari Sangha (OKKS).
Every year, the process generates employment for hundreds of thousands of people for over month, along with good revenue for the government without any investment, he added.
Each kendu leaf plucker makes around Rs 3,000 on an average. This year they will get a bonus after the produce is sold to traders by the Odisha Forest Development Corporation, a government organisation.
Goods and services tax (GST) on kendu leaves should be withdrawn as a large number of people from the state are dependent on it for their livelihoods, said Mohanty. “That way, pluckers and binders will get more money on welfare schemes.”
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier urged the Centre to reduce the GST on Kendu leaf to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.
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