Wome workers peeling ginger
Kothamangalam: As soon as harvest of ginger commences, Kalappara area gets crowded with labourers. They all will be busy bringing ginger for drying and taking dry ginger back. Huge amount of ginger is brought here in the season.
Due to the ginger drying process, Kalappara is called ‘Injippara’ now. The 3-acre land is located in Thattekkad road near Punnekkadu junction in Ernakulam. The merchants chose this place considering the convenience of drying ginger and bringing vehicles.
The visitors can feel the aroma of ginger as soon as reaching near the rock. After the season, the rock becomes the location for ad shooting for cars and bikes. The rock owned by the forest department is located in the valley of Chelamala.
The plain rock gets heated up by the sun's rays after 9 am. By noon, it becomes unbearably hot. The workers tolerate the intense heat from sun and ground while drying the ginger. They sit under small shades made using tree branches, plastic sheets and jute sacks.
The women peel off the skin of raw ginger while singing folk songs and having a chit chat. Migrant labours pack the dry ginger and sort them. Ginger season lasts from December to April. It takes about 8 days to dry one load of ginger.
Ginger is brought from Coorg and Palakkad in sacks weighing 60 kilograms each. A total of 18,000 kilograms of ginger is currently being dried. When 60-kilogram ginger is dried, upto 13-14 kilograms of dry ginger can be collected.
Ginger comes from Coorg in December and January and from Palakkad in February, March and April. After ginger is dried, merchants collect them for sale. The labourers keep the ginger in smoke to increase its shelf life and to brighten the colour.
The workers have to guard the ginger at night due to attack of wild animals. Wild elephants are spotted at night since last year. Though the rock turns hot during day hours, it becomes freezing cold at night.
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