Gum berry, a disappearing wild fruit tree

HYDERABAD: The gum berry, locally known as lasoda (Cordia dichotoma), a wild fruit is ripening in different parts of Sindh, inspiring traditional people, especially women and children, who look forward to enjoying the seasonal fruit.

Standing at the banks of fresh water channels, in fruit gardens mainly along mango orchards, houses and public places in several villages, this wild fruit always attracts people who eat it fondly because of its particular taste and sweetness.

It is common practice among village women to pick raw lasoda as a vegetable for pickles.

This fruit is considered an important source of minerals, fibre, vitamins and other anti-oxidants, providing essential nutrients.

Some elderly recall how the street vendors used to sell fresh lasoda door-to-door, mostly in summer days of April and May. But now neither the trees are available nor the wild fruits available for vendors to continue their business.

Despite its health benefits and economic value, this tree is being depleted ruthlessly from its natural habitats.

Desert community activists of Tharparkar district said at present lasoda tree was rarely seen in villages and was disappearing fast from the entire desert area.

Muhammad Siddiq, leading Rural Development Association (RDA), which works for agriculture and fruit tree plantation in the desert villages, said, “Earlier, it was a common tree growing everywhere in villages, and women used to collect it for cooking and pickle-making, while children used to climb the trees to eat its fruits.”

Thar Desert used to have various natural wild fruit trees, including lasoda, but now the trees are becoming rarer, leaving a depressing message for the community people, who used to rely on these trees for sustenance in difficult times.

In fact, such wild fruits and vegetables have disappeared in almost all regions, which increased vulnerability of rural populations.

Majority of people in rural areas depend largely on agriculture and livestock rearing for livelihood as well as for nourishment.

Reports have shown that unavailability of natural resources has badly affected the livelihood of rural population, who were otherwise natural custodians of these common assets.

Livestock supports a major portion of rural population, but depleted natural vegetation has resulted in nutrition deficiency in livestock. Combined with persistent water shortage, dryness and land degradation, the sufferings of livestock and people dependent on it have increased as well.

As a consequence, rural poverty is also increasing manifold, increasing migration to urban centres for survival.

The lasoda is considered a medicine by some people, who consider the fruit is useful for healing joint pain, cough, asthma, skin ailment, fever, headache, diarrhoea, intestinal worms, wounds, etc. But now the practice is not common because of unavailability of this fruit tree.

For now, there are no organised efforts to replant the tree and promote its traditional uses at the government level.

Some activists said previously these lasoda trees were planted on the boundaries of fields around fruit orchards to provide protection against strong winds.

Sindh forest department officials, who prepare plant nurseries across the riverine forest, mainly focus on forest species. They said that people do not demand lasoda plants for plantation in their fields, offices or public places, which was why they do not plant the species as well.

Ali Sher Hajano, a caretaker of government-run social forestry nursery at famous Mayani Forest, along national highway near Hyderabad city, said in the past there were several lasoda trees in the forest, but now it was rare.

Manzoor Kalhoro, who leads plant nurseries, including fruit, flowers, forest species and many more, also said that due to lack of demand for this conventional fruit specie, they do not sell it at outlets in rural as well as in urban neighbourhoods.

He said usually this fruit trees grows naturally and could still be found in some areas, but nurseries do not grow this fruit tree for sale.

Some people recall that the leaves of lasoda were used in beedi-making (hand rolled cigarettes, wrapped with tobacco). Long ago, whenever the beedi workers faced difficulties in finding imported leaves for rolling, they used lasoda leaves for the purpose, they shared.

Activists point out the need to plant more lasoda and other indigenous plants and trees to increase nutritious food of rural communities.

They believe that this could also increase resilience towards other disasters, including dryness. They urge the government’s attention in this regard.