Coonoor: Chocolate Making : A Home Industry and Water Works

Tourists, particularly honeymooners, come to Coonoor from all parts of the country. The Sims Garden is laid out in such a way that it has all the appearances of miniaturization. There are landscaped lawns, many botanical wonders, shrubs and flowering trees and plants. There is a green house, and also a small pond for boating, as well as a children’s park with swings. The general sense of complacence the town has is partly because Ooty has absorbed the administrative buildings and the  bulk of tourists. Coonoor, Keti, Kotagiri, Udhagamandalam (Ooty) and  Gudalur have to be understood as a constellation of small towns. The tea estates predominate here, and local communities are also absorbed as labor into the cordite factory in Coonoor and the needle factory in Keti. Coonoor is  an army cantonment, and the British in these hill side towns so well known to the gentrified classes, left behind a legacy of cottages, with gardens. Even today,  the gardens support the same array of hydrangeas, magnolias, roses, pine, and interspersed are the exquisitely coloured hibiscus which bloom around the year, in company with the rhododendrons, miniaturized for bushes. The wealthy also come from various parts of the world to stay in hotels, and many of these are prototype British lodges, with typical bungalow architecture of the 19^th century. In the digital age, house owners, who cannot stay in Coonoor year around,  advertise and rent their homes in “homestay arrangements”. For the residential elite, there is the Gymkhana, which provides an aura of seclusion, sports and good food. The town itself has temples from the 11^th century onwards. It also has several churches, while supporting a Muslim population too and the Badagas, Todas, Kotas, Irulas and Kurumbas visit from nearby villages, for market purposes.

 Ranjit Varghese makes home made chocolates on  personal request. He says that the big companies like Campco and Cadburys provide blocks for about 350 rupees each, and the home manufacturers buy these,  from the local grocers, (such as the shop of  Kuriappan  and Sons,which has been in existence in Coonoor market, since 1910). The blocks which come from Poona and Mumbai, are then melted down, adding almonds, figs, dates, raisins and honey according to specific proportions, which  is each family’s secret. Ranjit and his wife melt the chocolate at night, which  can take three to four hours, before it is cooled in large metal tins they have brought from Kerala.  They have to be very careful as so much is invested in the production of home made chocolate. In the month of March, every home made chocolate manufacturer can sell upto 600 kilogrammes, and the annual production of chocolate in Coonoor is one tonne.

The biggest problem that the Nilgiris faces is shortage of water and the problem of waste disposal. The dam  which was built for a population of ten thousand now serves ten lakh. No collection  of waste happens, and the monkeys, crows, pigs, cats and dogs have taken over the town, as the waste accumulates.  Vijayan, a banker, says that the town has one water drain into which all the garbage is just flung in. The heavy rainfall in mid September 2017, came after twenty five years! The frightening aspect is that Reilly Dam has anachronistic pipes which cannot provide water to the city.  Repair of  the pipes is now postponed, because the dam is  now filled with water.  Worse, contractors are robbing the water from leaking points at the dam, and selling it in trucks. Manoj, a tea shop owner, says that when there is no rain they get municipal water once every ten days.  If separate tankers were filled,  for each locality, there would be queues and water wastage, and the poor would lose out. The domestic taps run only at night,  so the storage and clothes washing all have to be done between 9 p.m and seven a.m., which is very hard on the women at home doing daily chores. He says that Coonoor residents have become so used to water shortage, that they are now all for water saving devices, and even say that water provided to them every two weeks is alright, as they have managed to learn how to store water in syntax tanks, permitting them to self -ration water for domestic purposes. However, for the tea shop that he runs, he buys water.  With the longstanding drought, according to  Coonoor residents, Nitin and Nancy, forest animals had started to come into the town. A honeymooning couple in Sims Garden got killed  in the summer, while taking a selfie with wild bison ( kattu erima) and there are reports of bears taking over tea plantations, and as for wild pigs they dig up the gardens of local people every night, leaving  hoof prints before they disappear.

Looking Towards Tomorrow

20^th September 2016

Swapna James is an award winning farmer from a village, twenty kilometres from Palakkad town. The bus to Cherpaullasherry from Olavakode junction, goes near her village, Kulakattikurusi,  four  kilometres on a country road, from  the mainroad at Kadampazhipuram Hospital Junction. Journalists and government officials know her well, and her name goes out to the committees which look to honouring farmers for the work they do. Her husband, James, is a successful rubber plantation owner and latex dealer, who says that “Swapna looks after the Krishi (crops)” which includes organic rice cultivation, along with vegetables and fruits, coffee and spices.  Since 2000, they have worked extremely hard, beginning their day at 5 am and winding up their duties at 12 midnight. They say that their profits actually come from the work they do as a couple, and that if they were to delegate, not only would the costs be high, but also the efficiency would be lower. They constantly reiterate that hard labour, and ownership management allows them to do what they do: grow vegetables for the table, distribute organic vegetables to clan members, and sell the excess to a neighbouring school, bringing in a steady income. Swapna has been recognized by the Kerala State, multiple times, because her output of fruit and vegetables is substantial. She has been able to generate an income of ten to twelve thousand rupees a month, has no expenses for fruit, vegetables, turmeric, ginger, spices, coffee and rice. She harvests honey with the help of workers, who are able to squeeze it from the hives  because it is work they are familiar with. There is a new interest in Kerala in orchids and ornamental plants, so these last two years, she has been able to expand her garden in this direction. She buys the ornamental plants from nurseries, and then multiplies them by growing them in optimum conditions using pebbles, tiles and coir for the base, then transplanting them on to tree trunks. School children, doing projects in Botany, often come to see her garden for their projects, assiduously taking down notes. 

Organic farming  as an idea is an offspring of the Kerala Scientists, who wanted to wean the population from chemically infused vegetables, fruits  and horticulture. It’s success has depended on the housewives and retired people of these small towns and  its adjoining villages. Swapna and James are representative of the interest that the rubber plantation owners have in negotiating with traditional Jaiva Krishi or natural farming methods, while growing cash crops and spices. They believe that coffee, for instance, can be interspersed with rubber trees, which is quite revolutionary, with nitrogen provided from runner beans, which are not used for the table.

Swapna is deeply integrated in social media platforms, and says that her exposure to ideas from other farmers comes from the posts they put up in their facebook pages. The couple also travels widely over the state, visiting farms, and nurseries, attending courses on organic farming, and also reading the vast literature that is being generated by the government employees who are committed to this programme. One of the innovations they have put together on the farm is a tube well, without motor. The well is six hundred feet deep, and it requires no electricity to pump up water.  The valve used  here is a “foot valve”, similar to that one used in a motor device, where water once it comes up, shuts, and water does not go back. Much of these simple innovations have appeared after much thought on their part, of simple and inexpensive ways of accessing water or good soil.

Swapna says that the earthworm count has gone down considerably because of pesticide use, and what one should strive for is a natural return to a soil which harbours earthworms. For this, they have devised various compost heaps, which are state sponsored in design, which allows them to place a base of cowdung manure, and layer it with leaves, rotting materials, including dead  farm animals, and everything is  organically broken down  into fresh earth fit for growing things in a matter of weeks. In these compost heaps, wooden frames like chicken coops are constructed with lattices that allow the compost to be aerated. They also use solar traps to catch beetles  which arrive at night to destroy fruit, flowers and vegetables.

In his spare time, as members of the Arts and Sports Club of Kadampazhipuram, they look after those villagers who are dying of cancer, and provide palliative care for people who are old, sick and incapable of looking after themselves. They are now collecting money from friends and relatives for a hospice for those who are in the last stages of their life, and live alone without children or attendants, a common problem for Malayalees, generally, whose family work abroad or in other cities in India.