Alongside the Bedana, Bombai, Madrazi, Kanthali and China Three litchi varieties, Golapi and Elachi litchis are now being grown in Dinajpur. The fruit is full of juice with thick flesh, making it tasty, and each litchi, with a delightful fragrance, is the size of a rasgulla.

The agriculture department says litchi is grown on 5,787 hectares in the district this year, 107 hectares more than last year. The district has 5,418 litchi orchards. About 35,000 tonnes of litchi will be produced this year, and sales will exceed Tk 1,000 crore.

Locals said the orchard of Advocate Zakir Hossain in Mohabbatpur village, Ailiapur union, Sadar upazila, has seven Golapi and three Elachi litchi trees. No one could confirm whether this litchi is grown anywhere else, and no record of it being grown in the country was found. He has been harvesting fruit from the 10 trees, planted 13 years ago, for three years.

Advocate Zakir Hossain said his orchard has litchi trees of every variety. Thirteen years ago, nursery trader Sanowar Hossain of Sikdarhat in Sadar upazila brought 10 saplings of new Indian varieties across the Benapole border, a litchi not grown anywhere in Bangladesh, named Golapi and Elachi. When the trees still bore no fruit long after planting, he decided to cut them down, but the orchard's gardener would not let him.

For the past three years the trees have been bearing litchis, which ripen alongside the Bombai and Bedana varieties. Litchis are usually tied in bunches of 50 or 100, but the Golapi and Elachi fruit is so large that no more than 25 can be tied in a bunch. The price is much higher too: last year he sold them at Tk 23 a piece.

This year, too, the 10 trees are laden with fruit, and various companies are showing interest in buying it. A company had earlier bought the whole crop. The litchis will be picked within the next seven or eight days.

"As far as I know, this litchi is not grown anywhere else in the country," Advocate Zakir Hossain said. "Growing Golapi and Elachi litchi takes patience. Other varieties bear fruit within three or four years, but for these you have to wait at least 10 years. If anyone wants saplings, I will supply them."

Md Anisuzzaman, additional deputy director (crops) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Dinajpur, said: "We have heard about the Golapi and Elachi litchi. We do not know whether these varieties are grown anywhere else in the country. We will look into this litchi very soon."

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