Moulvibazar Correspondent :
Dates juice collectors in different rural areas of Moulvibazar Sadar, Kamalganj, Kulaura, Rajnagar, Srimangal, Barlekha and Juri Upazila are busy in the traditional dates collection.
Many trees are being maintained by clearing rows and rows of non-stop palm trees in the abandoned areas of the village and on the banks of ponds by the side of the road.
Winter brings many forms to the trees of this region.
In the struggle for the life of the tree, in the midst of many hardships, many achievements are achieved by extracting date juice from this popular tree of rural Bengal. This is a very happy time for the tree. To cut the tree, one side of the tree branch is cut and cleaned. And two folds are cut along the middle of the cut part. Gachhi was able to find a narrow path a few inches below the fold. A drain made of bamboo has been placed under this narrow path. The juice falls under the drain and falls into the container. The juice is usually tied to a tree at noon and kept in a container overnight. At this time, different species of birds including shalik and doyel come to the tree to eat juice. Juice is available for two days after cutting the tree. The first day’s juice is Patali molasses, and the second day’s juice is Jhola molasses. For juice, dates are cut once and after five-six days. It is time to dry the cut part of the tree. Dates are usually cut east and west to facilitate drying. So that sunlight falls directly on the cut part. The boys and girls of the village are waiting for the sun to rise in the morning when the sweet juice of dates will be taken down from their trees.
Syed Humaid Ali Shahin of Dharkapan village in Moulvibazar Sadar upazila and Abdur Rob of Dakshinbhag village in Baralekha upazila said sap can be collected from dates palms from 8 to 9 years of age to 25 to 30 years of age. But the bigger the trees, the less juice. Older trees give less juice but older tree sap is very sweet and delicious. Middle-aged trees have the highest amount of sap. Too much juice is harmful to the plant.
Dates are cut in a special way. Trees are busy cutting dates in a clean and tidy way with a combination of different materials. They use sharp iron bars, thick ropes, bamboo or plastic bags to hold the bark. That was tied with a rope to the trunk of the tree and goes up to the tree. To cut the tree, a rope is tied to the tree along the waist to maintain the balance of the body. The rope is specially made. A special git is given at both ends of this rope. After climbing the tree, two gits can be easily covered. Many people tie a tree to a tree with hard wood or bamboo rope and make it stand on top. This allows the tree to be cut down safely. After extracting the juice, molasses is made from wood. These are called Patali molasses and Jhola molasses.
At present, date juice is being sold at Tk 90 to 110 per liter. Somewhere in the calculation date juice and molasses are sold.
