Palm Trees...

The wonderful tree - Palm Trees and their uses.

These photos are from Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India.  Ramnad (as people refer to the district in short) is rich with these trees. And the local people use the tree and its parts in all possible ways. Like you can see here as fencing, using the rib of the leaves tied neatly and placed vertically. These fences can pass water through them and when it rains, it allow water to flow through. Local people say, these fences are easy to construct, has a life of about 3-5 years and uses completely local materials and skills. 

 The leaves of these trees are used to construct a wall around their bath areas or toilets and again is easy to construct. They give good protection from the sun. Palm leaves are also used as roofing material which is quite sturdy and lasting as well.








Here you can see another wall to a school campus. These fences look quite beautiful and artistic. Other products are palm leaf mats which are quite popular in Rameswaram block where every household makes mats as a flexi-time activity. On an average a woman can make about 8-10 mats of 5 feet x 3 feet which earns them about Rs.25 per mat. Interestingly there is a well-established collection and trading network for these mats which is extensively used in the packaging industry and is even exported to many countries. They are super-eco-friendly packaging material used in packaging and exporting of fish to many other products as well.

 Ramnad is also famous for the baskets made of palm leafs. Though there are many more byproducts from Palm trees like palm juice (Patha Neer), Palm sugar (Pana Vellam) etc. the Palm trees is not getting adequate attention as Palm trees are being increasingly cut down for real estate and other proposes and new trees are not being planned to replace the cut trees.

The tree trunk has also great timber value and is used in various forms. The main role of the palm trees is in the strengthening of the bunds of water bodies as they tap roots which hold the soil together. In fact, in many districts of Tamil Nadu, the presence of palm trees tells us that there used to be water bodies for the protection of which, they were planted.