The baobab trees of Mannar

It is reported that there are plans afoot to introduce camel breeding to Mannar, in order to provide the people with nutritious camel milk.

Camels eat baobab leaves and it is said that the origins of the trees in Mannar go back to ancient camel caravans arriving from the Makran coast of today’s Pakistan, originating from Arabia. An industrial park is said to be also planned for Mannar.

Mannar’s ancient baobab is a resource for both these ventures.

Visitors to Mannar must not miss the famous baobab trees on the island. This is not a variety indigenous to Sri Lanka but a protected variety.

A tree of many names

Within the boundary of the Kachcheri or District Secretariat at Mannar stands a baobab tree (botanical name Adansonia Digitata L. family Bombacaceae). The name is derived from the Arabic name for the tree, ‘buhibab’. It is also called the bottle tree, due to its shape.

Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and one to Australia. Outside these locations, baobabs have been recorded only in Mannar, Puttalam and Jaffna in Sri Lanka and Savanur, Karnataka, India. There is one at Ulhitiya, on which more later.

The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist who described the tree. Since the bark is rough and greyish, resembling the hide of an elephant, the Sinhala name is ‘aliya gaha,’ the Tamils call it ‘perukka’.

Mannar is predominantly a Catholic District and since the baobab fruit contains 30 seeds, they call the tree the ‘Judas bag,’ since Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Monkeys eat the fruit and it is called the ‘monkey bread tree’ too.

Introduced by the Arabs

The baobab is a native of Africa and Madagascar, found also in North Western Australia, and it is thought that the tree was introduced to Sri Lanka by Arab traders, since the age of the trees predates the arrival of the Portuguese.

W.T. Keble in ‘Ceylon, Beaten Track,’ published in 1940, says at page 101, ‘On the (Mannar) island grow the mysterious baobab trees, natives of Africa, and brought to Ceylon no one knows when.’

Many centuries ago the Arabs would have sailed into the ancient harbour at Manthai, known earlier as Mahatittha. It also said that since camels eat the baobab leaves, due to its high water content, and it is carried by the camel (ship of the desert) caravans as fodder, Arab traders coming from the Makran coast of what is now Baluchistan in Pakistan, from Arabia and down the Western coast of India, crossing the Adams Bridge to Mannar, would have introduced the baobab.

Pearl fishery

These Arab traders, who introduced the coffee plant to Arabia and the cinnamon to Malabar Coast of India, would have been attracted to Mannar by the world famous pearl fishery.

The coastal region of Mannar was once a great commercial emporium from where it is said Cleopatra procured pearls. Leonard Woolf, the British Civil Servant, was sent to supervise the pearl fishery, during the season, while he was attached to the Kachcheri in Jaffna, and refers to the Arab traders, boatmen and divers who come to the pearl banks during the diving season. Shank fishery would have also attracted Arab traders.

Another legend is that original African slaves (Kaffirs) who were settled by the Dutch near Sirambiwadiya near Puttalam had introduced the tree.

There are other baobab trees, other than the one at the District Secretariat, in the Pallimunai area and others, in clumps, along the Old Mannar Road along the coast to Puttalam.

Again legend has it that these were the overnight camp sites of the camel caravans and that baobab branches given as fodder to the camels, left uneaten, must have taken root. It is interesting that the locations are said to be a day’s march apart, at a camel’s pace!

Biggest baobab tree in Sri Lanka

The baobab tree at Pallimunai is the biggest known one in Sri Lanka and has a girth of 62 feet. It is said to be over 700 years old. The age of the baobabs in Mannar range between 101 and 723 years with around 40% between the ages of 300 to 400 years.

Baobabs have also been recorded in Jaffna and another at Puttalam in 1848, which was later destroyed. At one time, there were at least 60 known baobabs in Mannar and Jaffna.

Another baobab exists at Gangewadiya basin on a tributary of Pomparippu Aru, on a plain named Kumburak Pittaniya, near the southern boundary of Wilpattu National Park, where the Kala Oya flows into the Dutch Bay. This is described by Nigel Forbes and Asfar Deen in The Sunday Times of 15 August 2010.

Lalith Seneviratne, writing in The Sunday Times of 22 August 2010, reported on the former Warden of the Maduru Oya National Park, Ranjith Jayasinghe, who while he was Game Ranger at Ulhitiya went on training to southern Africa and brought back some baobab seeds, was able to germinate them using fire and water, to stimulate forest fires and the rain which follows and planted one baobab at the Ulhitiya Game Ranger’s office, which survives today. It can be located by a stone ring thoughtfully placed around it by Jayasinghe, which Seneviratne says needs urgent reinforcement.

Another plant, set down in the Maduru Oya National Park, cannot be located. But as the young baobab at Ulhitiya does not show the classic characteristics of baobab yet, may be in the future when the Maduru Oya one matures, it may be located, hopefully, by searching for the well-known Baobab look!

A visitor to Delft Island also reports the presence of baobab trees; one which has a trunk that is hollow enough to allow one to walk into it.

Peculiar characteristics

The peculiar characteristics of the baobab are large, dark green leaves like the fingers of the human hand, with five (seldom seven) oblong blades, which causes the name ‘Digitata’.

The flowers are pendulous, large, white and solitary. They are about six inches across and open at night; the scent attracts bats, which pollinate the flowers. The sour scent attracts other types of flies and nocturnal moths.

The large white oval fruits have a dense coat of velvety hairs and are gourd shaped and spongy, acidic and farinaceous. The seed coat is hard and drought resistant.

In Africa elephants eat the leaves; they also pierce the bark with their tusks to get at the water the tree holds inside. Baobabs can hold up to 250 gallons, but there is no record of elephants in Sri Lanka consuming baobab leaves.

There is speculation that baobabs may have been introduced to Australia by sea farers from seed pods carried for food or fodder for the camels which were imported for use in the Australian desert, which now have become feral and have been declared a pest.

The baobab is a strange looking tree. It has a short stubby trunk of enormous girth. They have been known to attain heights of 16 to 98 feet, trunk diameters of about 23 to 36 feet. It is thought that baobabs live up to 2,000 to 6,000 years.

This outsized trunk is capped by a small crown of spindly root like branches, almost bare of leaves and sticking out into the sky, looking as if it has been uprooted and stuffed back into the ground, upside down, with its roots sticking into the air. Baobabs live for several thousand years. The baobab is leafless for nine months of the year, during these dry months water is stored in its thick, corky, fire-resistant trunk.

Legend

Legend among the older residents of Mannar has it that the Baobab is an example of what happens to a person who is never satisfied with what they already have. The story goes that the baobab was among the first trees to appear on land; next appeared the slender and graceful coconut palm.

When the baobab saw the coconut palm, it cried out that it wanted to be as tall. Then the beautiful flame of the forest tree appeared, with its crimson flowers and the baobab was envious of that.

When the baobab saw the magnificent fig tree, it yearned for fruit as well. The gods became annoyed with the baobab’s greed, pulled it up by its roots and replanted it upside down, to keep it quiet!

Food value

The Baobab looks like it does for a very good reason. In the wet months water is collected in its thick, corky, fire-resistant trunk to be used during the dry months. In dry arid Mannar District, this is a distinct advantage.

In Africa the baobab has food value. The leaves are consumed as a vegetable, both fresh as a soup and as a dry powder. The white oval fruit are provided with a dense coating of velvety hairs and are gourd-shaped, spongy, acidic and farinaceous.

The fruit is edible, containing a cool tasting mucilaginous pulp, which is nutritious and contains vitamin C. It exceeds the calcium content of cow’s milk. The dry fruit pulp separated from the seeds and fibres is eaten directly or mixed into porridge or milk. The fruit pulp is also used to make a nutritious juice.

Fruit is also used as a local medicine, to treat fevers, scurvy and stomach disorders. The seed are used as a thickener for soup, roasted for direct consumption or pounded to extract vegetable oil.

The tree also provides fibre, a dye and fuel wood. The dry pulp of the seed is eaten fresh or used as an additive with gruels. It is also ground to make a refreshing drink; it also can be added to aid fermentation to distil alcohol to sugar cane, etc.

In Australia, the indigenous people use the Baobab as a source of water and food, and the leaves for medicinal purposes. They also paint and carve the outside of the fruits and wear them as ornaments.

Shelter

Baobab trees could also be used for shelter, as they develop hollow trunks. A hole is carved in the hollow trunk to form a door, the soft pulp removed and a fire lit inside to dry out the hollow. The bark of the baobab grows around the cut and over the internal surface of the tree, which is unharmed by the excavation.

In Africa the large hollow has been used as a storage place for executed criminals. In Mannar these hollows provides a refuge for poisonous snakes. There are records of leopards hiding in the hollow to ambush prey.

A very large hollow baobab in Western Australia was used as a prison in the 1890s for Aboriginal convicts, is still stands and is a tourist attraction. Grates were fitted to the openings; the baobab still bears the bolts and studs from its service as a prison.

The wood is soft and spongy, it is of little value as timber, but the inner bark is fibrous and is used in the manufacture of ropes that are known for their strength. The Panikkar elephant noosers of Batticaloa had a saying: ‘As secure as an elephant bound with a perukka (baobab) rope,’ which means that they too knew the tree, but there are no known, identified baobab trees in the Batticaloa District.

Prized plant

The baobab grows very easily from seed; it is a prized plant in bonsai circles. It is a very hardy tree and can be even transplanted with no negative effect. In Australia, when some rural roads were being widened in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, some baobabs growing on the side of the road were dug up, root balled, transported on the back of a flat bed truck, stored for several weeks on the ground, in the open near Wyndham Port, then replanted there and they continue to thrive as though they have always been at Wyndham Port!

Profitable cultivation

May be in dry and arid Mannar, given the multiple uses it has for food and nutrition, it may be profitably cultivated and its products harvested? Senegalese baobab fruit is exported to Europe and North America.

The greatest potential is in the fruit being processed into a white powder with a cheese like texture to be used as an ingredient in the food industry. Its use has already been authorised by the EU in smoothies and cereal bars. In the Walt Disney film the ‘Lion King,’ the character Rafiki makes his home in a baobab tree.

The baobab is truly a wonder; Alexander von Humbolt called it “the oldest organic monument of our planet”.

Zero cost species

The baobab survives in Mannar, however not many young plants are seen. A researcher Dr. Henry Trimen has concluded that cattle, goats and Mannar donkeys may be eating the saplings.

In Mannar the baobab is a zero cost species, it does not compete with other native species. The baobab is a conspicuous component of the coastal biological diversity of Mannar. Its ability to adapt to the harsh conditions of Sri Lanka’s most arid zone is itself a justification for its conservation. We must protect this unique heritage.

The means of propagating the baobab are known. May be it will be worthwhile to try to propagate it again, following Warden Jayasinghe’s example at Ulhitiya?

The young people of Mannar need productive work; surely a team of botanists and agriculturalists can come up with a project to cultivate baobab and harvest the fruit and process the powder for consumption and export.

An idea for an investor, a corporate or a charitable social entrepreneur who wishes to start an enterprise in Mannar’s proposed industrial park? The Mannar Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, over to you. The baobab will also provide food for the camels, if and when they arrive!

(The writer is a lawyer, who has over 30 years experience as a CEO in both government and private sectors. He retired from the office of Secretary, Ministry of Finance and currently is the Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre.)