Decline Of Wild Edible Fruits In Maharashtra’s Tribal Markets: Evidence From Weekly Haat Records 1990-2023

Abstract

Weekly haat registers maintained by the Integrated Tribal Development Projects in six major tribal districts of Maharashtra (Nandurbar, Dhule, Nashik, Palghar, Gadchiroli, and Gondia) provide the first systematic, long-term evidence of the collapse of wild edible fruit supply between 1990-91 and 2021-22. Total quantity sold through these official markets has declined from an average of 9 842 tonnes per year in 1990-95 to 2617 tonnes in 2017-22, a fall of 73.4 percent. The number of fruit species regularly appearing in the registers has dropped from 29 to only 9 per season. Among major species, mahua flowers have fallen from 4 126 tonnes to 1 214 tonnes, charoli seeds from 1 348 tonnes to 178 tonnes, amla from 1017 tonnes to 298 tonnes, and jamun from 782 tonnes to 152 tonnes. Real prices paid to collectors (deflated to constant 2022 rupees) have risen between 567 percent (mahua) and 1102 percent (charoli), driven by growing urban and herbal-industry demand, yet actual household cash earnings have declined sharply because collectors now harvest far smaller volumes. The primary drivers are the large-scale replacement of mixed deciduous forests by teak monoculture since the late 1980s, near-total failure of natural regeneration due to uncontrolled grazing and loss of seed-dispersing wildlife, and recent fragmentation caused by highways and mining. The paper concludes that without urgent measures (protection of key species, inclusion of fruits under the Minimum Support Price scheme, and allocation of degraded reserve forest for community-led regeneration), wild edible fruits will soon vanish from both adivasi diets and local economies.