Since time immemorial people across the country have known the saying "Jashorer jash, khejurer ras" – Jashore's pride is its date palm juice. At the start of every winter people wait eagerly for the taste and aroma of date palm juice, gur and patali, and relatives living in cities gather at their village homes, mainly to enjoy winter pitha and payesh.

A falling number of trees, the reluctance of tappers (gachhis) and the lack of fair prices have dampened the trade somewhat. Despite the difficulties, date palm patali and gur are still being produced and sold in the region, and it is here that the famous nalen gur is found.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Jashore, the district's eight upazilas have 7,91,514 date palm trees, most of them in Jashore Sadar, Manirampur, Sharsha, Chougachha and Bagherpara upazilas. Last year the district produced 4,064 tonnes of gur and patali and about 2,560 tonnes of juice. After meeting local demand, the gur and patali also go to other districts.

But the district no longer has as many date palms as before, and the number of tappers is also falling. Juice cannot be collected without an experienced tapper, and the next generation is not very interested in the work. People involved in the trade say another cause of the crisis is that gur and patali do not fetch a fair price for the labour and production cost.

The gur and patali of the Khajura area of Jashore have such an aroma that gur and patali made elsewhere in the country are no match for it. The country's best nalen gur is found in this area. Nalen gur comes from a special kind of date palm juice that local people call nalen ras, and it is used to make nalen gur sandesh, kheer and payesh.

Towards the end of the Bengali month of Ashwin, tappers begin preparing the trees for tapping. The bark is shaved off in a process called "gachh tola", cleaning the spot from which the sweet juice will flow. Each skilled, self-taught tapper ties a thick rope around his waist and cuts the tree with great skill using a sharp tapping knife.

Once the tree is prepared, it is cut to open a channel for the juice. With deft hands the tapper carves the soft upper part of the tree and fixes a bamboo pipe there. The juice seeps from the cut and drips through the pipe into an earthen pot (thile). The first juice is slightly salty. The tapper then rests the tree for some days before cutting it again. This time the juice is sweet and its fragrance spreads all around, drawing ants, bees, birds and squirrels. This juice is nalen ras, a marvel of the tappers' skill.

Abdur Jalil (50), a tapper in Khajura, an area famous for nalen gur and patali, said the trees have to be cut at some risk. Bringing the juice down from the trees at dawn is very hard work, and then it has to be boiled into gur and patali and sold. Even after all this effort the price is poor and the profit does not match the labour, he said, which is why there are fewer trees and fewer tappers than before.

Since last year several businesses in Jashore have started selling gur and patali online, which is expanding the market somewhat.

"Last year we signed agreements with 60 tappers in Bagherpara and sold seven tonnes of their gur and patali in different parts of the country," said Nahidul Islam, entrepreneur of the e-commerce firm Kenarhat. "We paid more than the local market price. Because demand for unadulterated products is high, the price was higher, and buyers responded very well. This year, besides Bagherpara, we are bringing in about 200 farmers from Keshabpur and Manirampur, and our target is double last year's. If the market for gur and patali can be expanded, tappers will get better prices."

Kenarhat sells patali at Tk 390 a kg and gur at Tk 350 a kg, and delivers anywhere in the country.

To protect against Nipah virus, local farmers have taken measures of their own. They tie date palm leaves and "phata" – the broad, biscuit-coloured, paper-like sheath at the base of the leaves – around the tree, which stops bats and any other birds from drinking the juice.

Harun Molla, a farmer of Dohakula village in Bagherpara upazila, said in the local dialect: "I've heard bats come to drink the juice and spread disease. Now, on the tree whose juice is meant for drinking, I split the leaves and wrap and tie them from beside the pipe right down to the mouth of the pot. Then no bat, or any bird, can sit there."

Jashore civil surgeon Dr Dilip Kumar Roy said Nipah virus spreads through date palm juice mainly via bats' saliva, droppings and urine. When a bat sits on the pipe of a date palm and drinks the juice, its saliva, droppings and urine get into the pot. However, if the juice is heated a little before drinking, there is no risk of infection.

The civil surgeon said there is no antiviral medicine for it and patients receive general treatment. Since there is no specific drug, 60 to 70 per cent of those infected die, so caution is all the more important.

Jashore's famous date palm patali is losing its reputation at the hands of profiteering traders. Most of the patali and gur sold in the town's lanes and shops in winter is adulterated: cheap sugar is mixed in and the product is sold as date palm patali at three times the price.

Farmers said that while the date palm juice is being boiled, "muchi" (hardened sugarcane gur, like patali) and old gur (ula gur) are mixed in to thicken it. Sugar is then added and the mixture is "seeded" to make patali, and a special chemical is used to give it the patali smell. The patali or gur is then presented to buyers as pure. These patali, made with sugar at Tk 50 a kg and sugarcane muchi at Tk 70, are being sold at Tk 200 to Tk 250 a kg.

Mizanur Rahman, a farmer in the Basundia area of Jashore, said several traders in his area make this fake patali. They buy ula gur cheaply and add sugar, scent and a chemical to keep the colour of the patali right.

Harun Molla (68) of Dohakula village in Bagherpara upazila has been making gur and patali for about 40 years. "I have 70 date palms and I cut 10 trees a day, which gives five or six pots of juice," he said. "Now on most days I sell the raw juice. Today too I sold two pots for Tk 240."

"My three daughters and grandchildren came to visit. When they left, each took 5 kg of patali. The youngest has told me I must give her a bit more," he said.

Saying he has never eaten anything unlawfully earned in his life, he added: "I've heard some people now put sugar in gur and patali and sell it. I have never done that and never will."

He said the juice from a week of tapping lets him make 25 to 30 kg of gur and patali. His patali sells for Tk 200 and his gur for Tk 150 within the village.

Shamsher Ali (65), a farmer in the Moddhopara area of Bagherpara municipality, said: "I have 120 trees and I cut them every five days. I have one son, who is studying for an honours degree. He can't tap trees and has never gone with me. I sell raw juice at Tk 150 a pot. Orders come from Dhaka and I sell patali at Tk 250. We have nothing to do with any kind of adulteration."

"Date palms, Jashore's heritage, have declined considerably," said Imdad Hossain Sheikh, deputy director of the DAE in Jashore. "The government has taken an initiative to plant date palms. The present generation is not very keen on collecting juice for gur, and that is partly why the trees have declined."

Jashore Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Shafiul Arif said: "Jashore is famous for date palm gur production. The district's gur has a reputation and is in demand. Date palm gur has been branded."

"We will make efforts to ensure that gur and patali are made free of adulteration," he added. "We are working to support those who make gur and patali and encouraging them to produce unadulterated products."

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.