Clambering between high trees carrying a knife in the searchfor sap to brew alcoholic drinks is a young man's game -- and Sri Lanka'sageing toddy tappers say the craft is dying. In a typical day, a skilled tappercollects the milky white sap from 75 to 100 palms that are linked by a networkof ropes that he walks along, just one slip away from falling onto the hardground far below.
Gamini Gunatillake, 38, first scampered up the 60-foot treeswhen he was just 14-years-old and is among the youngest toddy tappers insouthern Sri Lanka. He learnt the ropes from his father and is proud to havekept up an old family tradition, but he believes that he will be the end of theline. His three children, aged between 20 and nine, all dismiss the idea offollowing their father and they hope to become office workers instead."There will be no one in my family to take my place after I am gone,"Gunatillake said.
At the privately-owned coconut grove in Wadduwa, Gunatillakemoves swiftly from tree to tree carrying two knives, a tamarind wood mallet anda gourd to collect the sap -- all essential tools of the trade weighing about25 kilogrammes. The sap-filled gourd is gently sent down using a vertical ropeto a helper on the ground who empties it into a vat made out of mango wood, andeach tapper must collect 100 litres daily to make 750 rupees. Toddy tappersoften fall while working during monsoon rains or at times when there are strongwinds, and serious or even fatal injuries are common.
The owner of the coconut plantation, Manjula Seneviratne,37, inherited the property where toddy tapping had been a family business forover a century. "I don't know for how long I can continue this because itis becoming very difficult to find toddy tappers," he claimed. "Mygrandfather had 35 toddy tappers in his employ, but I have only seven. Localestimates suggest that the number of tappers in Sri Lanka has dwindled to lessthan 7,000 compared to about 50,000 tappers four decades ago. Seneviratne sellsthe toddy to a nearby distillery and pays one third of the sale proceeds to hisworkers.
Sri Lanka's main Coconut Research Institute (CRI) has triedto formalise training toddy tappers and help secure the fading craft, but itsefforts soon fizzled out. "There is a social stigma attached to climbingtrees (for a living). Then there is the risk factor," said Henry Nimal,head of CRI Technology Transfer unit.
