With the arrival of winter, rural Chandpur has come alive. Winter in the Bangladeshi countryside means collecting date palm sap, a sign that some traditions are still alive and well. The sweet smell of sap dripping into clay pots at dawn shows that the familiar heritage of rural Bengal survives. In villages across the upazila, gachhis (sap collectors) are busy fitting pipes into date palms to collect the sap.

Md Golam Hossain Prodhan of Dewanjikandi village in Matlab Uttar upazila has long collected sap as one of the village's experienced gachhis. "You don't see date palms the way you used to," he said. "Still, we try to make the most of the trees there are. Sap is collected from Agrahayan to Magh. From the afternoon I prepare the trees and fit the pipes. Overnight the sap drips in and fills the pot. At dawn I collect it and sell it at the market. But we don't get as much sap as before."

Local residents Zahir Uddin and Abul Kalam said: "Many trees are being ruined because inexperienced gachhis cut them the wrong way, so sap production has fallen. Once, when winter came, everyone from children to the elderly would crowd the gachhis' homes. That sight is rare now, but villagers' interest has not faded."

After collecting the sap, villagers make kheer, payesh, pitha, naru and other traditional winter foods, which still double the joy of winter when entertaining relatives. According to the Department of Agricultural Extension in Matlab Uttar, the upazila, which covers about 277.50 square kilometres, now has about 2,177 date palms, and sap is being collected from most of them.

Upazila agriculture officer Faisal Mohammad Ali said: "Collecting date palm sap is a traditional rural occupation. But many trees are dying because inexperienced gachhis cut them the wrong way, which is a concern. If new gachhis and farmers are trained and date palms are planted widely through a government initiative, the tradition will not only survive but create income and jobs."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.