Gur (Jaggery) Making — Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh

Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh is India's largest jaggery (gur) producing region, processing millions of tonnes of sugarcane into traditional unrefined sugar annually. The Muzaffarnagar khandsari and open-pan gur system involves crushing cane in iron crusher mills (kolhu) driven by tractors, collecting raw juice (ras) in large iron vessels (kadahi), boiling with lime to clarify, skimming impurities, and ladling thick molten jaggery into wooden or metal moulds to set. Three grades exist: hard cake gur (for storage), soft gur (for immediate consumption), and liquid gur (rab) used in cattle feed. Muzaffarnagar gur is paler yellow compared to Kolhapuri dark jaggery, as high-quality cane varieties (CO-238, CO-0238) are grown in the fertile Ganga-Yamuna doab with deep groundwater irrigation. Gur contains minerals (iron, calcium, potassium) retained from sugarcane juice — unlike refined white sugar. Over 3,000 small gur mills operate in Muzaffarnagar taluka during the November-March crushing season.