The Toshali Craft Mela was organised at the Janata Maidan of Bhubaneswar for a week which ended on December 27 evening. The writer visited the Mela and had a great occasion of surveying all the products and merchandises from ecological point of view. The whole Mela was divided into three main components. The major component was handicraft products.
The handicraft products include different kinds of sofa sets made out of canes, bamboos, woods etc. including different types of beds. When the sofa sets prepared out of canes and bamboos were designed differently and colourfully, the sofa sets and beds prepared from wood were carved technically and artfully to attract the customers and purchasers.
Bed sets for small household products and house decorative were displayed for sale. The main customers were ladies in this section.
Different types of body wears of ladies made out of herbal products were also eye catching. There were kitchen accessories and utensils as well.
In a true sense it can be said that, it was rather a Toshali art gallery of modern cultures. The wooden decorative folding screen-walls with stand to use as divider of long halls of walnut-wood were also displayed. The craft section was full of modern decoratives.
Teak, Gambhar, Sisoo, Millingtonia, Rose wood, Damaguridu of Gardenia species and walnut of Himalayan species are used for wood works.
Species like Gamblar, Millingtonia (Akash Mali) and Damagurudu are the associates of Sal forests. At present both Sal and Teak forests are denuded and shrinking like anything due to unethical felling activities of man.
The case of walnut species in the Himalayan range is as good as Teak and Sal forests of Odisha and elsewhere in India. As information collected by the writer from various artists of Toshali Bazar, they are facing a dearth of raw materials at reasonable reach and cost for production of finished articles and to save the native culture, trade and livelihood.
Cane and bamboo forests are very quickly shrinking. The cane forests have practically vanished from Odisha. The cane products which were displayed in the Toshali Bazar were from Assam forests. The Banapur Mal of Puri district which was once famous for cane but it is now under encroachment. The case of bamboo forests of Odisha is no better.These forests are over exploited and destroyed eventually.
Unless the raw materials are available, how these cottage industries will exist in the future. The Government should take care of it.
Kalahandi, Dhenkanal and Athagarh sub-division of Cuttack district are very famous for wood carved products of various forms and nature.
Similarly, the Nilagiri Revenue Sub- Division, Baripada Sadar Sub-Division and Anandapur Sub- Division are famous for stone utensils, which are prepared from soap-stones and soft-stones.
These quarries should be properly and effectively protected from any destruction lest it should not destroy our culture and artists. Similar is the case of horn products. Generally, the horns of buffaloes are used for production of household products as well as of products of decorative values of drawing rooms. The raw materials of these items should easily be available to the artisans. At present the artisans are feeling helpless to get the raw materials.
The Gajapati district, especially the Paralakhemandi area, is very famous for horn articles and products from red- sandal wood. Now the red sandal wood forests of Gajapati district is extensively smuggled, which casts a shadow on the age-old culture of the region. Similarly, the artisans of horn products of Cuttack town are facing similar trouble to get raw materials. So, most of the artisans have left their traditional professions, because of such difficulties.
Needless to say, the plantation of Teak, Gambhar, Narguni, Sisoo, Sisam, Dalbergia Sisoo and Delbergialatifolia, Damaguruda, Kurei, Kendu, Melingtonia (Akashmali) etc should be carried on at a big scale. The trees which yield wood for artful articles should be planted throughout Odisha for encouraging production of qualitative wood products. Similarly, the plantations of all kind of canes, bamboos, climbers, reeds, grasses, lantana plants, which produce the domestic household products and decorative articles, should be planted to encourage cottage industries. Most of the handicraft local units, right from small to big, in Odisha could not join the Mela for financial stringencies and want of raw materials.
There should be proper investigations and proper roadmaps to locate the dwindling units. There are certain tribes who know the art to prepare household products from leaf, fibre and grass. These tribes' expertise should be encouraged.
Similarly, southern portion of the Mela was occupied by retail shops of handloom products. There were silk products which are produced from yarns of Tassar-cocoons cultivated locally. The spun threads especially for knitting and weaving etc produced from Tassar cocoons or silk cocoon are becoming scare as the host plants of the above insects are under depletion fast. Due to felling of the host trees, encroachment of forest lands and wide occupation mines, the forests of Asana and Arjuna are vanishing fast for which the raw materials of silk products are under threat. The district of Ganjam is known as city of silk; similarly the places like Maniabandha of Athagarh Sub-
Division of Cuttack district, Mayurbhanj district, and Keonjhar district are very famous for silk products of Tassar cocoons produced in Asana and Arjuna plants, and locally cultivated.
The tribal members of the society especially of the hill tribes know the art of cultivation of the silk cocoons in Asan and Arjun plants. Besides above plants, the Mulberry plants, which act as host plant of silk worms should be cultivated in Odisha for production of Tassar products. The Endi cocoons can also be cultured through indoor practices to support the handicrafts. The caster plants are the host plants of these insects as well.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is giving prime importance to small scale, medium scale and mega industries in the State to promote human employment. But our indigenous cottage industries are growing sick very fast due to negligence of Government machineries and political will. Similarly, the lac industries which manufacture of bangles, too has a high demand in the State and outside. The Government should promote the agro and forest based industries.
Besides handicrafts and handloom products, the food products of various types were sold in the Mela. Hundreds of stalls of various natures were working to serve the fast foods to the customers, especially ladies and children.
This can be included within the cottage industries which should be promoted while there should be research for preparation of new items of fast foods and jelly, jams and pickles and dry foods of indigenous types.
The westerns part of the Toshali Bazar was occupied by the three chariots of lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, which attracted the elderly people.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)