Palm leaves get popular to preserve heritage, environment

“Once there was a huge demand for all produces of a palm tree – this included palm fruits, leaves, toddy, palm jaggery, handicraft items made from fibre. But after a point, the demand reduced and people stopped making products. When I decided to engrave Thirukkural, my only option was palm leaves. Unlike paper, which has limited durability, palm leaves can be preserved for more than 500 years. I wanted my work to be handed down to the future generation,” says Jaswant Singh. 

The engineer-turned Thirukkural activist tells us that engraving on palm leaves is not an easy task, but it is worth the hard work. “I procure palm leaves from villages near Chengalpattu. Before engraving, I process the leaves to make the writings visible,” he adds. 

When Girish Subash and Kannan Velayutham decided to launch a cloud kitchen called Karigar Biryani that sells biryani inspired from Chera-era perunchoru, they wanted to deliver the food in eco-friendly packaging. “Around four years ago, my partner and I visited a couple of village towns in the Thoothukudi belt called Nagalapuram, Vembar and Vilathikulam. We saw residents practicing the art of palm leaf weaving (or panai olai pinnal as it is locally called). This art form is the primary source of livelihood for local artisans who make meagre profits for their hard work. When we launched Karigar Biryani last year, we checked out palm leaf boxes available in the Chennai market. The boxes were either old or damp and were not in a usable condition. We went back to the villages and visited the place again in September 2020. During the visit, we realised that this cottage industry as a whole is slowly disappearing. We decided to support the community and started sourcing all our packaging directly from these artisans, at the rates that are charged for them in the city. Through such initiatives, we aim to enrich the lives of our artisans, promote eco-friendly alternatives to plastic and also preserve the ancient traditions and art forms of our rich culture,” Girish Subash.