In Tarash upazila of Sirajganj, there are rows after rows of date trees on both sides of the roads. So, a large number of local people are involved in the work of collecting date juice I this upazila.
At present with the onset of late autumn local date juice collectors commonly known as ‘Gachi’ have become busy in preparing and starting the work of collecting date juice.
Our homeland Bangladesh is a country of six different seasons and each of the seasons here have distinctive features. In that continuity, the fog at the end of the night is spreading the message of the arrival of winter.
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So, the date juice collectors have become active to make arrangements for collecting the delicious date juice in every village of the upazila during the upcoming winter. They are spending busy hours in doing that as part our traditional village culture.
Nature no longer obeys the rules of the calendar so, within the next week, the sap collection from the date trees will start there. This time a mild cold is already being felt with the morning dew in the rural villages of Tarash Upazila.
After only a few days, the process of making jaggery and molasses from the collected juice will start and will continue till the Bengali month of Magh (February). Preparations for collecting date juice are visible in every village of the upazila already.
This upazila was once famous for its date juice and molasses. The oldest traditional date molasses of rural Bengal has been lost in the evolution of time.
Even a few days ago, in most of the houses in different areas, there were numerous date trees in free spaces around the houses, on the sides of the road and on the fields.
These date palms used to grow naturally without any care. Delicious date molasses was made with extra juice after meeting the needs of each family.
Due to the lack of awareness of the common people in the rural areas, the eco-friendly date palm trees along the roadsides of the ponds are no longer visible.
The number of date palm trees is declining day by day due to the indiscriminate destruction of the number of trees for using as fuel in the local brick kilns.
Still in winter, people from the city come in groups to eat the date juice in the rural areas. Once upon a time, in the evenings, the rural environment would be sweetened with the smell of date juice.
At that time the proactive busyness of the date juice collectors could be noticed everywhere. They used to make different types of molasses by heating the sap. The taste and scent of those were completely different.
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Now, of course, it seems like a fairy tale to the new generation, but it is real. The colder the weather gets, the sweeter the date juice becomes. Each tree usually provides juice for eight to ten years.
Winter used to be more festive for it was the time of eating date juice, molasses, cake and other traditional dessert items. In addition, attractive and strong carpets were made from the date leaves and the leaves are also used widely as fuel work.
However, the traditional date palm trees of Bengal are now on the verge of extinction across the upazila due to lack of monitoring by the forest department as well as for the changing climate of the country.
Fazlu Mia a date juice collector coming from Lalpur Upazila of Natore said, “We have been taking lease of date trees in Tarash upazila for a long time now. We provide the owners of the trees with 5 to 7 kg of molasses as the rent of the trees for a period four months time every year.”
“Due to lack of date palm trees as per the demand, the molasses could not be produced as expected. Even then, we have made agreements with the owners of more than 200 date trees this year. I have kept this profession only because it was profession of my ancestors”, he added.
“However, the way the date palms are being cut, we will not have any business left in this area in near future. The price of quality date molasses will be a little higher this year than the price at which sugarcane molasses is being sold in the current market”, he said further.
The date collectors said, “When the winter will start, the price and demand of date molasses will increase due to entertaining relatives with traditional delicacies and then our profit will be a little higher. We cannot get profit as much as we labour.”
In this regard, Tarash Upazila Agriculture Officer Lutfunnahar Luna said that date palm trees are on the verge of extinction in every part of Bangladesh. The work of cutting down palm trees for collecting the sap is an example of art and skill. For this reason, the demand of skilled date juice collector increases with the arrival of winter, she added.
Meanwhile, the concerned people of the upazila believe that the date palm is integrated in our economy, culture, literature and way of life so we must protect this long-running tradition at all costs.