Turn over a delicious leaf

THE BEAUTIFUL LEAVES OF KACHNAR ARE NUTRITIOUS TOO

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

JUST BEFORE May—when the amaltas and the gulmohar trees spread out their spectacular show—the kachnar tree too flowers in all its glory. The flowers look like orchids and have a delicate fragrance, but they are not as common as the amaltas and gulmohar, and it is quite easy to miss them. There is a tree near my house in Delhi which hugs on the wall of a government primary school. But I doubt whether children have spent much time to appreciate its beauty or even play with its two-lobed leaves, shaped like butterfly wings.

But tribal communities in Jharkhand, however, will not miss it as they consume every part of this multipurpose tree. The flowers, fruits and leaves are edible and are an important source of nutrition. In fact, the leaves are a perennial source of food, unlike other flowers and fruits that provide nutritional support only for a short period. They can also withstand the vagaries of extreme weather. Trees-borne foods, like kachnar leaves, form the second-biggest source of food, after herbs, in Jharkhand, write Lal Ratnakar Singh, former chairperson of the Jharkhand Biodiversity Board and Varsha Rani of Birsa Agricultural University in their analysis on the role of leafy greens in food and nutritional security of tribal communities in the state.

VARIED PREPARATIONS