Palmyra Palm Tree:
Palmyra palm trees in Odisha are providing dual benefits by reducing lightning-related deaths and serving as a food source for elephants during lean seasons.
- Palmyra Palm Tree is commonly named as sugar palm, or toddy palm or fan palm.
- It is a native of tropical Africa but cultivated and naturalized throughout India.
- In India, it is planted as a windbreak on the plains.
- Required Climatic Conditions
- It exhibits adaptability to a wide range of soil types, including arid and wastelands. They thrive particularly well in sandy soil, red soil, black soil, and river alluvium.
- These palms are also suited for semi-arid regions with an annual rainfall of less than 750 mm.
- They can grow at altitudes from sea level up to 800 meters.
- Palmyra is mainly propagated through seeds and there is no vegetative method available for its propagation
- It is used as a natural shelter by birds, bats and wild animals.
- The chief product of the palmyra is the sweet sap (toddy) obtained by tapping the tip of the inflorescence.
- The toddy ferments naturally within a few hours after sunrise and is locally popular as a beverage.
- Palmyra palm jaggery (gur) is much more nutritious than crude cane sugar.
- Traditionally, the Indian ‘Nadar’ community are the people who make their living from this tree using its wood, fruits, sap, stems, petioles and leaves to process a variety of food products, beverages, furniture, building materials, and handicrafts.
