In some of my previous episodes, I had introduced a couple of people. This video comes in that series. Today I’m going to introduce a person who knows a lot about plants – Mr Cherian Mathew. We have been friends for nearly seven years now. He has worked in different capacities in the past – as a farm journalist, as one of the first entrepreneurs to introduce Kadaknath, a breed of black chicken, to Kerala, and so on. He even won a central government award for poultry farming. Mr Cherian is an authority on Kadaknath, and that was the reason why I got in touch with him. His interest in afforestation deepened our association. Today he knows nearly four times more than I do about plants because it’s a subject he pursues day and night,  buying books on plants, reading them, collecting plants, meeting people who know a lot about plants, gathering more information from them, and so on.

Before I came into the field of afforestation, I thought sprouting of plants from either seeds or roots was a simple affair. I realized how difficult it was only when I sought out saplings of indigenous plants and varieties that were slowly going extinct. I learnt there are certain protocols to follow – like identifying experts, finding out where the seeds are available,  which season is the best for seeding – and they have to be studied scientifically. Besides, each sapling has to be nurtured in a cost-effective manner so that people can buy it at least for Rs 300. Preparing the potting mixture, tending the saplings, investing time on them, transporting them and so on – all these add to the cost.

Most people imagine that plants can be sourced for free, literally from the roadside. So they are shocked at the price. I’ve seen people bargaining hard even when a sapling is on offer for Rs 75! They have no idea about the days of labour involved in the process. Besides, when a person raises ten saplings and only six survive, he may have to hike their cost in order to redeem his loss. But that is not my topic for today.

Let me introduce Mr Cherian Mathew whose knowledge of plants and trees may inspire you to take interest in afforestation. A point worth mentioning is that despite the raging pandemic, he travelled from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod at least 30 times in the last year to source plants. His trips between Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam are innumerable! He is a cancer survivor. After a thyroid surgery at the RCC here, five years back, he made a wonderful recovery and is back into normal life. Unlike most who withdraw themselves from active pursuits, Mr Cherian Mathew has shown remarkable will power and overcome his problem successfully.

Namaskaram.
Were you interested in plants and trees during your stint as a farm journalist?
Yes. Not only in trees but in birds and animals too. The concept of a farm includes animal husbandry and even fish farming. I’ve handled all aspects of the field, to a great extent.

But you took your degree in Commerce. So when you became a farm journalist, what did you do to increase your knowledge base?
As a farm journalist, my responsibility was to profile farmers who had gained success in vegetable-, flower-, fruit-, fish- farming and in rearing goats.

So you interacted with farmers?
I was in constant touch with farmers, and came to know why they failed or succeeded, and how they found their forte. I got involved in their activities, stayed in their homes, and all this helped.

So at a certain point, you discarded journalism and took up farming, didn’t you?
Yes.

What was your reason for choosing to raise Kadaknath chickens?
When I went to the Pazhakulam Social Service Society at Adoor in connection with farming, I happened to meet Dr Raman Pillai, who had retired by then. Seeing my curiosity, he advised me to go to Jalandhar, and gave me a few addresses in North India. So I went there although I knew no Hindi.

Why did you go there?
I went to meet the Director of the Central Poultry Development Organization. Seeing my interest, he arranged to reach me Kadaknath chickens.

But why the Kadaknath chicken?
It was a totally new enterprise in Kerala, and I was optimistic about its prospects here.
New enterprises are great but don’t they carry risks? Very few people are fearless enough to become pioneers in a field because there is no guarantee that the business will be successful.

That’s true. Earlier, when I was in search of a means of livelihood, I came to know of an 84-year-old man named Prakash in Thevalakkara who had reared Kadaknath chickens 25 years back. The bone and flesh of the chicken were mixed with herbal powders to make an Ayurvedic medicine by a physician who treated eye-ailments in a pharmacy nearby. People were aware that there was something special about this hen with black flesh that went beyond its greater melanin content. So it was used to make medical concoctions. But nobody knew anything about the ingredients or the pharmaceutical processes. I tried hard to find out but failed each time.

In this manner you brought the Kadaknath chicken to Kerala and began its distribution. That was the time we got introduced to each other. I had read about you in Mathrubhumi weekly or newspaper. Later, after the episode of ill-health, you were drawn towards the Miyawaki method of afforestation, and we have been together in it from the very first phase. We also got introduced to Dr Mathew Dan. In those days, you did not know much about plants. I was better informed then.

Yes. I had dabbled in afforestation, and knew a few people like Karim sir who set up forests. But beyond that, I didn’t know much about trees.

When exactly did you feel you should acquire knowledge about trees?
After teaming up with you.
But your efforts began two years later.
When I begin work on anything, I start from the most basic level. And later I meet the higher-ups, and everyone in between.
You have developed a very deep relationship with the Forest Research Institute at Peechi, the Botanical Garden at Palode, the Agricultural College at Mannoothy, and the scientists working there respond very positively to you.

Yes, seeing my interest in the subject, many scientists have spent money from their own pockets to help me out. When there were things they didn’t know about, they sent me to Karnataka to pick up various saplings. I should never forget the invaluable help they rendered. They are the main reason why I’ve reached this position now.

Generally speaking, the results of research that take place in our universities never see the light of day. I was at the university for about seven years. When I was doing my PG course in journalism there, I heard of a scholar named Pushparajan who had developed about 51 or 101 varieties of hibiscus. I went to the Department of Botany and sought a couple of stems but was told they could not be given until the scholar received his PhD degree. After Pushparajan got his doctorate when I went there, all the plants had dried up. This was around 30-35 years back. This is what I have seen. But in your case, all the people in the institutions you frequent – from the grassroots worker to the top-level scientist – show great interest in disseminating information.

What they say is that no one approaches them for information about where certain plants are available or how certain plants can be propagated.
The seeds of many of the plants we see around us do not germinate so easily. Of late, we have developed the technical know-how to aid germination. Can you explain the differences for our viewers?
Take the Dita bark tree, for instance. Its seeds are so high that you cannot pluck them. A pod may contain many seeds.
They hang like thin threads, don’t they?
Yes. If you break open the pods, the seeds are as tiny as mustard seeds. How can we collect them?
How then can we make them germinate?
They fall to the ground, and when it rains, they germinate. But this may not happen at the roadsides. The alternative lies in planting the stems. Again that won’t happen straightaway.  We will need a mist chamber or a polyhouse.
By mist chamber, you mean putting up an iron frame and covering it with green nets . . .
Or UB sheet. If we plant the stalks there, they will germinate.
Will Rootex help?
Yes, it will hasten the process. But even without it, about 60 % of them will germinate. In Kottayam region we have what is locally known as Koonampala [Tabernaemontana] whose stem, after planting, takes about three months to germinate. It’s an endemic species, commonly seen in garden plots and propagation takes place through pollination by birds. But plant nurseries do not have a stock of even 50 saplings of this species.

No one but you will ask for 50 Koonampala saplings! If there were popular demand for it, the plant nurseries would certainly stock them.

The Dita bark tree cannot be sourced at all in Kerala!

Those trees have been planted on roadsides in Delhi but are nowhere to be seen in Kerala. In November, when they bloom, there is heavy fragrance in the air. There was one Dita bark tree near the Ernakulam railway station. I don’t know if it stands there now. There was another in the Raj Bhavan premises. In Delhi, it can be seen on the sides of virtually every road. Similarly, the curry leaf tree does not grow well if we plant its stem. But if the seed falls through crow droppings even on rocky ground, it germinates and grows into a robust plant!
The case of the African bird’s eye chilly is similar. The saplings that sprout from crow droppings or cow dung are healthier than those we nurture using fertilizers. Nature has its own ways.

Your special quality is that you’ve scouted for and brought back many plants and trees of Kerala that are under threat of extinction.
Especially Poochapazham [Spicate eugenia]. I remember making garlands with them in my childhood. In Thiruvananthapuram, it’s called Paapanaashi, I think. Today it’s not to be seen. The fruits look like maize, appearing in huge clusters. There is a hole in the middle and you can string them.

I mention this because many people have sent messages about it. I myself saw the fruit for the first time when you showed it to me. One person’s parents went very nostalgic on seeing the fruits. Many have enquired whether the fruits are available, whether the saplings can be purchased and so on.
A small tray of Poochapazham costs Rs 2,500. Yet people are ready to buy it!

Can you mention ten varieties of such fruit trees?
Poochapazham, oblong leaf salacia, Indian blackberry, black plum, passion fruit.

Indian blackberry? Or is it coral berry? It has a small fruit?
Yes. We can grow them in our plots.

What about mootapalam?
Mootapalam, Indian blackberry and black plum – all these are huge trees. All the names I mention can be grown in a five-cent plot in Thiruvananthapuram.

Melastoma has tasty fruits. What about orange berry?
Orange berry is comparatively less tasty.
During days when toffees were not available, kids would pop those berries into their mouths and chew them. I hadn’t seen this plant in Thiruvananthapuram until I spotted a lot near a river at Venjaranmoodu.
It comes in six or seven varieties. Some grow up to six feet.

Indeed! The other day I saw one that was six feet tall.
Many of the species that we had seen during our school days have disappeared.

One species that we jointly recovered was Gomphia serrata, known in Kottayam and adjacent areas as Valaru. It is used to beat elephants. People in different districts use different names. In Thrissur, it is called Kuttikkaara. A mahout at Erumeli promised me a stem of the plant but he was himself attacked by an elephant. Thereafter I didn’t get it. My mother, even at 88, could recall the appearance of the plant. She remembered that its leaves were small and long, like those of the coffee plant. I say this because this stem is mentioned in one of Karur’s short stories, in which a teacher uses it to beat his students. This convinced me that there is indeed a plant called Valaru but many scientists I spoke to had never heard of it. Now I have procured its sapling. Mootapalam is another plant I saw for the first time after entering this field. I had never seen it before. As for the large-flowered bay tree and Chironji [locally known as Kulamaavu], Miyawaki’s students – the 75-year-old American Prof. Box and the 76-year-old Japanese Prof. Fujiwara – identified them here.

We had Chironji here.

Of course. But we hadn’t included them in our forest. It was after the professors pointed them out that we began to plant the large-flowered bay tree and Chironji in our Miyawaki forests. The trees that they include in evergreen forests are the strychnine tree, large-flowered bay tree, chironji, wild nutmeg, Niepa bark tree, Ceylon olive, beach almond tree and others. Sir, can you mention the names of a couple of trees that you discovered during your trips?

I liked Poochapazham hugely. The coral berry has a lot of protein content and is used in medicine. It fruits three times a year. Iron wood is a tree that is likely to go extinct. Its flowers are simply fabulous.

They find mention in many Malayalam film songs but are difficult to get.
One of its peculiarities is that it may not flower every year. I don’t have any scientific explanation to give regarding that.
Sometimes, we see this phenomenon in mango trees as well.
There is an attempt to bring back many of the Ayurvedic medicinal plants that we have lost over the years.

Can you give us a couple of examples?
Sage-leaved Alangium is rare but we are planting it in our Miyawaki forests.
It was once used to cure rabies. There is a huge tree of this species down below.
Flame-of-the-forest is also not very common.

What about the tree we call Vanni [Prosopis juliflora]? We have also been able to collect many indigenous varieties of the jack and the mango trees. Many of them are disappearing.
There is a group of 10,000 members in Thrissur who deserve handsome compliments. They try to source as many native varieties of the mango tree as they can possibly get from anywhere, and give the saplings to people for free.
Plants like Analivegam [Pittosporum neilgherrens] . . .
That and Theepala [Altonia venenata] are not stocked in nurseries. And because they are hard to get, the saplings are very costly.

Sir, if we spot a particular plant somewhere, a person has to go there and uproot it. You have to consider the labour charges. Unlike earlier, nowadays, you have to pay Rs 800 as a labourer’s day wage. So, if a person secures ten saplings, the expenses on procuring one comes to Rs 80. So there is no point in complaining about saplings being expensive.
The one disadvantage of high price is that it will dissuade people from buying them.

I disagree with you. It’s a matter of attitude. A person thinks nothing of paying Rs 250 at the Travancore Mall to buy a ticket and see a film. But he or she will think twice before purchasing a sapling if it costs the same amount. Most people find the expense of the Miyawaki project – Rs 1.5 lakhs per cent of land – exorbitant. It is an issue of perspective. If you wish to put up a forest, it can be done only if you spend so much. There are people who spend Rs 1.5 lakhs to lay floor tiles, paying Rs 1,000 per sq. m. Many trees are fast disappearing and becoming rare. But won’t we be prepared to buy its products and shell out any amount of money on Ayurvedic medicines, if a need arises?
That’s true.

Aren’t there people who buy roses for Rs 750 and Rs 1,000? So there is no point in complaining that analivegam is terribly expensive. We don’t purchase saplings as soon as they appear in the nursery, do we? We may go there only once in six months. Or only during the rains. The grower may have planted ten saplings of which five may have dried up.  Shouldn’t we consider that issue also? These are the reasons why plants and trees are going extinct. No one takes interest in them. People should make an effort to learn more about them. Haven’t you gone to the forests in search of certain plants and seeds for the purpose of afforestation?

Yes. This time, I got certain rare species like wild black plum, wild Indian blackberry and so on. But getting them in bulk quantities is not easy.
Similarly, we get the Indian rose chestnut from the forests . . . If we’re able to successfully grow them here, away from their wild habitat, we will be able to retrieve at least 300-400 items.

Of course! We had 100 in the beginning; we are now richer by at least 150 items.
Here we have more than 300 plant species. Originally we had about 70 growing here, that Dr Dan identified. We have ourselves planted more than 200 species here. But we haven’t tagged them properly. Our focus has been on simply growing them.
It would be good if we knew how much stock we have.

Is there any book you would suggest for those interested in studying plants?
Keralathile Vana Sasyangal [Forest Plants in Kerala] is the best book in Malayalam. Written by S. Nair, it was published by the Kerala Bhasha Institute in 1985. Now it’s out of print. It mentions nearly 500 varieties by name. Then, there is Neshamani’s book titled Oushadha Sasyangal [Medicinal Plants]. Another one is Dr Nimmy Kuriakose’s Keralathil Anyam Ninnu Pokunna Marangal [Trees Going Extinct in Kerala] which mentions nearly 100 trees.

Have you brought back all the 100?
No, I’ve managed only up to 20. I see a possibility in Wayanad where I propose to go for collection.
How long do you intend to pursue this interest, sir? You usually stick with a project for nearly three years, and then move to the next. But you’ve been associated with afforestation for close to seven years.
One lifetime is not enough to complete our understanding of plants. We are certain to lose in the race. There is no possibility of winning.

It’s not a matter of losing. Maybe you’ll notch up 70 marks out of 100. Add another 10 marks for your sincerity, and that takes it to 80. Now for the benefit of our viewers, can you tell us the names of government institutions in Kerala that stock plants for sale?
The chances of getting the most number of plants are at Kerala Forest Research Institute at Peechi, JNTGBRI at Palode in Thiruvananthapuram, Malabar Botanical Garden at Kozhikode, the M. S. Swaminathan Foundation at Wayanad, and another institute called Gurukula. There is yet another institution at Wayanad. But I don’t have its address with me.

Aren’t there a lot of plants at the Agricultural University in Mannoothy?
Those are fruit trees meant for people interested in setting up plantations. Not forest trees. The botanical garden at Kuzhippallam has a lot of species. And they are cheap.
There are two nurseries at Kuzhippallam. One focuses on plants and the other on trees. It is close to Mulayanthanni Bhagavathy temple. At Mannoothy, close to the Madakkathara Electricity Board Sub-station, there are many nurseries. The main stockist is Enashu chettan. We have bought a lot of saplings from him. Then, there is Homegrown, a nursery at Kanjirappally. We shall show that in one of our videos later. The prices are rather exorbitant but that is because they give high quality saplings grown in big grow bags, some of which have 10 litre capacity. You can be sure that the saplings from there will yield fruits. Those of you who are interested in fruit trees may buy saplings from there. It is priced at Rs 350 and upwards. Some of you may wonder why so much should be spent on the saplings. But when you buy a sapling for Rs 1,000, remember that it was nurtured for one-and-a-half years in the nursery. You have to take care of it only for as much more time. You must go there and see the collection. Many of you still fear planting trees close to your houses. But you must see how they have pruned the trees in a very proper manner. They follow a fine method. I’ve travelled through that area many times. That nursery must be at least ten years old.
No, fifteen.

In these fifteen years, I passed through that area many times but never stepped in, until  recently. It should not be missed. Plant-lovers must certainly pay a visit. Sir, is there anything you would like to tell our viewers?
We should realize the value of fruit trees, and try to grow in our plots, plants and trees that we had seen in our childhood.

What will people with small plots do?
They can plant two poochapazham and two coral berry plants in it. Coral berry plants put out fruits three times a year. These are plants that do not need much space.
Thank you for sharing so much information, sir. As and when you gather more information, we’ll share them with our viewers. Thank you once again.