{"id":75199,"date":"2026-09-11T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?post_type=article&#038;p=75199"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:54:32","slug":"how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/","title":{"rendered":"A safety net for our mahua trees"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"How nets are changing the way a Jharkhand village harvests mahua\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TAjrwzNZywc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have been harvesting mahua flowers in Dhipa Toli, Jharkhand, for the past 50 years. Our mahua trees are older than some of the residents in our small village, and have been passed down within families over generations. Traditionally, we have collected mahua through controlled burning of fallen leaves. This would separate them from the flowers, making it easier to pick the flowers. However, as the trees age, we are worried about the decline in the number of flowers with each harvest since burning dries out the branches and flower buds.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the past few years, families in the village have shifted away from the practice of controlled burning and started using nets to collect mahua flowers. These flowers never touch the ground, so they are cleaner, can be processed for consumption, and fetch better prices.&nbsp;Since mahua cannot be planted or cultivated like a crop, we are trying to ensure the longevity of our trees through these alternative practices.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The principal footage for this story was shot by Arpana Minz, a food safety, quality, and operational manager at Wild Harvest<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p><div id=\"idron-2089561303\" class=\"idron-article-in-content idron-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/idranswers.idronline.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"What is IDR Answers Page Banner\"><img src=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1.png\" alt=\"What is IDR Answers Page Banner\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1.png 1250w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1-300x60.png 300w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1-1024x205.png 1024w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1-150x30.png 150w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/What-is-IDR-Answers-Page-Banner-1-768x154.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1250px) 100vw, 1250px\" width=\"1250\" height=\"250\"   \/><\/a><\/div><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>All images and videos featured courtesy of Wild Harvest<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&mdash;<\/p><h3 id=\"h-know-more\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Know more<\/h3><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As the market for mahua grows, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/forests\/the-global-rise-of-mahua-risks-severing-its-local-adivasi-roots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">understand<\/a> what this means for Adivasi communities harvesting the flower.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learn <a href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/in-meghalaya-women-farmers-enhance-a-livelihoods-programme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how<\/a> women farmers in Meghalaya&rsquo;s North Garo Hills are using community networks and innovative ideas to expand their businesses. &nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"idron-3404817032\" class=\"idron-troublemakers-placement idron-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"donate banner\"><img src=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1.jpg\" alt=\"donate banner\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1.jpg 1250w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1-300x60.jpg 300w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1-1024x205.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1-150x30.jpg 150w, https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Donate-banner-1-768x154.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1250px) 100vw, 1250px\" width=\"1250\" height=\"250\"   \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":75201,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[8,582,11],"tags":[3615,3624,3662,3702,3714],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-75199","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-instagram","category-livelihoods","tag-ecology","tag-farmers","tag-livelihoods","tag-rural-india","tag-sustainability","contributor-ashran-beck","states-jharkhand","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How nets are changing the way a Jharkhand village harvests mahua | IDR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mahua trees in Jonha are passed down over generations. Families are adopting new ways to collect flowers for a better harvest and the trees\u2019 longevity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A safety net for our mahua trees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mahua trees in Jonha are passed down over generations. 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Families are adopting new ways to collect flowers for a better harvest and the trees\u2019 longevity.","og_url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/","og_site_name":"India Development Review","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":680,"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Mahua-harvesting_feature.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/","name":"How nets are changing the way a Jharkhand village harvests mahua | IDR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Mahua-harvesting_feature.webp","datePublished":"2026-09-11T06:00:00+00:00","description":"Mahua trees in Jonha are passed down over generations. 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The flowers are spread on large green nets.--Mahua"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/article\/livelihoods\/how-nets-are-changing-the-way-a-jharkhand-village-harvests-mahua\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Articles","item":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A safety net for our mahua trees"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","name":"India Development Review","description":"India&#039;s first and largest online journal for leaders in the development community","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"kn-IN"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization","name":"India Development Review","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"India Development Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/75199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/75199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75212,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/75199\/revisions\/75212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75199"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=75199"},{"taxonomy":"meta-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/meta-filter?post=75199"},{"taxonomy":"schema-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schema-filter?post=75199"},{"taxonomy":"no-display","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/no-display?post=75199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}