NEW DELHI: In 2006, when the aedes aegypti mosquito kicked in, a Mexican wave of dengue and chikungunya victims erupted across the capital. Platelets dropped by countless counts and units of blood, antivirus tablets, and fruit and vegetable solutions were sought. While the city woke up to the benefits of tender coconut, especially its electrolytes and minerals that replace ion, mass migration of Muslim sellers from Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh—from villages such as Tigri, Dharampura and Shishgarh—started taking place.
Until 2010, about nine trucks carrying heaps of green coconut drove into Delhi from Kerala and West Bengal. Today, nearly 90 trucks, each carrying 10,000 coconuts, reach Azadpur Mandi daily from Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat.
Given the substantial rise in supply, sellers too have multiplied. Earlier, they were mostly locals, already in the fruit and vegetable trade. Today, more than 95 per cent of coconut dealers in Delhi are from Bareilly. Vendor-hopping in different parts of the city will indicate that the curved Aruval knife from Tamil Nadu has been replaced by a long paring-slash-butcher’s knife.
Masoom Ali Khan mans a stall with his sons in Dwarka. Since there’s always a stock of about 100 to 200 coconuts, each weighing between 650 grams and 2 kilos, transportation is a hassle. One person has to sleep on the roadside all the time. Not just him, more than 10,000 sellers are by the street side. Down the same road, Shahid and Riyaaz, serve free coconuts to the police through the week. “Police waale kabhi bhi nariyal paani lene aate hain, kabhi paisa nahi dete. Ek nariyal pe saat rupey bachta hai,”says Shahid. Over and above appeasing the police, they pay a 500 fee each to the three MCD committees in exchange for the street space.
Shameem Ahmed, who runs the Green Coconut Association for wholesale coconut suppliers at Azadpur mandi, rues the fact that sellers don’t have an organisation like this. “The nature of coconut stalls is such that they are managed by entire families, leading to the problem of child labour. As the supply has grown, prices are coming down by a few rupees each season and there is no government regulation. Earlier, if there were five coconut sellers in a zone, today, there are at least 200,” he says. Even at the mandi, these people are on the street. “Why can’t coconut sellers have sheds like those of watermelon and apple? Because our product isn’t perishable, we are made to sit in the open. We have been raising this issue since many months,” he adds. Ashok, another coconut wholesaler, says more than 70 per cent of the trade takes place on borrowing and the APMC should intervene where buyers refuse to pay and find out the reasons. Interestingly, sales aren’t affected by packaged coconut water, which might be infused with saccharine. Shah Jehan, a retailer in East Delhi, says he briefly dissolved his cart and started supplying to a mall, but demand wasn’t much and the arrangement lasted two months. “Yeh sadak ka vyapaar hai, sadak par hee hota rahega, sadak par hee faayda hoga, sadak par hee badlaav hoga,”is his belief.