Wild Ber and Forest Fruit Traditions of Banaskantha

Banaskantha's semi-arid thorn-scrub landscape is rich in wild and semi-cultivated ber (Ziziphus mauritiana and Z. nummularia) trees that provide food security for rural communities during the lean season. Wild ber fruits ripen from January to March, providing free, nutritious food for children and adults who collect them from community wastelands. Improved ber varieties like Umran and Gola are grown in homestead orchards, producing larger fruits that fetch premium prices at local markets. Ber is dried into ber ola (dried ber) for year-round use as a sweet-sour snack. Traditional healers in Banaskantha use ber bark decoction for diarrhoea and ber leaf paste for boils. The khejri tree (Prosopis cineraria), widespread in Banaskantha's dryland, produces sengri pods that are dried and stored as emergency food. Forest-edge communities harvest khejri pods, tendu leaves, and gum arabic from Acacia senegal as minor forest produce income.