Cashew Feni And Forest Tales

With support from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Wildlife Conservation Society – India, Department of Science and Technology, Maharashtra Forest Department and the Tillari Biodiversity Research Trust, Anushka Rege undertook a vital research project to study mammals in the forest-cashew plantation landscape of the Tillari region in Maharashtra’s Western Ghats. Here, she met life-loving locals, and learnt how people’s lives are closely intertwined with the biodiversity the region supports.

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Cashew feni, an alcoholic drink brewed from the cashew bonda (as its fruit is locally called) is popular in Konkani culture. Like the biological and cultural diversity of the Konkan, this drink too blends well with a variety of other drinks, yet never loses its own distinct flavour. My grandmother claims it helps her knee pain. The raw ingredient of feni comes from cashew plantations– a dominant feature of the landscape. Given my Konkani roots, and that I was a wildlife biologist in training, I became interested in understanding how cashew plantations can serve as wildlife habitat. For my study, I chose the Tillari bioregion nestled deep in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, where cashew is an important cash crop and feni, an intoxicant for locals.

Tillari is situated in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg and Kolhapur districts and forms part of the corridor between the state’s Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka’s Kali Tiger Reserve and the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa.