Question

How tendu leaves enhance the income of people living in forest?

Answer 1

The selling of tendu leaves is a major source of income for many people living in forest. Each bundle contains approximately 50 leaves and if a person works very hard, they collect as many as 100 bundles in a day.They are also used to make bidis. At first NWFB brought under state control was tendu leaves,Before Madhya Pradesh adopted a cooperative structure for tendu leaf trade in 1988, the collection of leaves as per official records ranged from 6 to 7 million standard bags. This was reduced to around 4 million standard bags per year after 1989. The reduction did not result from a lack of resources, but rather from the rejection of leaves that would previously have been collected but were not of high enough quality for the cooperatives (Prasad, Shukla and Bhatnagar. 1996). However, local manufacturers of bidi cigarettes have been known to buy additional tendu leaves directly from collectors