A harvest is in progress.

Of a high-valued spice

that brings warmth to your  favourite dishes and memories.

With trained eyes, the women bend  low,  scanning the forest floor

foraging for the camouflaged star anise.

These Monpa tribal women have  ascended 2,700 metres

into the forests of Arunachal Pradesh to harvest  the spice, locally called lissi.

They do this year after year,  from October to December.

We have been collecting star anise  since we were five-ten years old.

At the max, three to four people collect  star anise at the same time.

If more people hunt at the same time,  then the collection’s quantity reduces.

After working for a couple of hours,  we all reconvene during lunch.

Earlier, each household would  collect over 30/40/50 kg on a daily basis.

But now, it has declined  to 2/3 kgs per day.

Now the collection has reduced  because trees have dried up.

The evergreen star anise tree grows  across a few states in northeast India.

But its trade has remained centred  within the Monpa community

in West Kameng and parts of  Tawang district for generations.

The species found here, Illicium griffithii,  is also found in neighbouring countries.

But it’s not commercially grown in India as compared  to its cousin, Illicium verum in China and Vietnam.

Earlier, we used to get Rs 3 for  selling 1 kg of star anise.

We used to be able to buy  a notebook from that money.

That’s when I realised that  this spice, star anise, is gold.

I decided to start its farming.

It rains a lot in June/July for us.

From 2018, I started sowing the seeds  in June/July. Since then, the plant didn’t die.

This year (2024) marks my first harvest

However, with over 60% of trees having  disappeared in the last 84 years,

star anise has been listed as an  “Endangered” species since 2014.

Over-harvesting seeds and fruits, cutting  down trees for wood and charcoal,

and unfair market practices are  reasons for the trees’ decline.

This year, I noticed a new insect  on the tree. I don’t know its name.

The insect fed on the star anise fruit, which damaged it.

It can get damaged because of rain as well.

For people like Ngawan  and Pem in West Kameng,

forest products provide around 20 to 30% of their income.

But this spice, used in cooking, medicines,  perfumery, and food preservation,

is not sold in local  markets in the region.

It’s only collected for trade, which  remains largely unorganised.

On the other hand, India’s star anise  import has increased.

Star anise primarily grows in Arunachal Pradesh.

Presently we are consuming star anise  that is imported from Vietnam and China.

The consumption of locally produced  star anise in Arunachal

is largely limited to India due to  its lower production levels.

While the quality is good, the lack of  awareness among the local gatherers

has prevented it from capturing  the market share we aim for.

We can’t migrate to other cities to sell this product.

Nor can we sell it within our village.

There are several middlemen  from Dirang who are connected

with star anise businesses  in Guwahati, Delhi etc.

So we sell it through them.

One gains something only by  losing something.

So even if we are selling  it to them at a lower price,

at least we are selling something.

We do as the middlemen say.

Because of insufficient local production of star anise,  people rely on imports from other countries.

I have heard that now we import it from Taiwan. Earlier we used to import it from China.

A few steps are underway to keep the spice  star shining and benefit the community.

Many village committees have  banned cutting trees for wood,

and foraging is restricted to  collecting only fallen fruits.

Culprits face a heavy fine.

The World Wide Fund for Nature-India  is also working with the community

to make the star anise business more  sustainable and profitable for the villagers.

There is a concept called CCA framework,  which is community conserved area framework.

We have been promoting since 2006.

Villagers are not aware of  the end use of the product.

so then the whole equitable benefit sharing is not in place.

We are more of a facilitator in here.

So the idea is to actually bridge that gap

and also get the CCA management committee active.

They can collect (star anise) from each household

and they do the collectivization, do the segregations, packaging and sell it to the big buyers.

So that’s the idea of institutionalizing  this whole process of marketing.