DHARMAPURI: In the war against cola behemoths, an extension of the protests over jallikattu, Tamil Nadu has a famed local ‘breed’ to field — Bovonto. As the clamour for removing Coca-Cola and Pepsico products grew louder over the past few days along with the pro-jallikattu protests, especially on social media, refrigerators and shelves across Tamil Nadu are being stocked with the local soft drink from the century-old Kalimark.
Among the streams of protest in the agitation for jallikattu was one where youth broke Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottles to protest the exploitation of water resources and also because they represented ‘Western imperialism’.
The two major traders’ organisations in the State unanimously decided to stop selling Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and the impact of this is evident.
“We told dealers not to supply Pepsi and Coke,” said S Mangalam, whose eatery on the Salem-Dharmapuri highway sells 30-50 bottles of the drinks each day. Now, like many other stores, she has stocked up on Bovonto.
Though not popular outside Tamil Nadu, and even in some parts of the State, there are those who swear by Bovonto. “I’ve been a loyal fan of Bovonto for seven years — especially for the tangy grape-cola taste,” says P J Prasad, a 23-year-old who works for a private company in Coimbatore.