From a local brick-tea to textiles made from a Himalayan plant, over 15 products from Uttarakhand have been given the coveted GI tag by the Geographical Indications Registry.
Uttarakhand’s Berinag tea, highly sought-after by London tea houses and tea blenders, is made from the leaves of a plant that grows wild in the Himalayas, which are then compressed into a solid mass. Bichhu buti fabrics, made from Himalayan nettle fibres, was also on the list of products that bagged the GI tag. As the plant’s fibres are hollow, they have the unique ability to accumulate air inside, thus creating a natural insulation and making an ideal clothing material for both winters and summers.
The Uttarakhand mandua, a finger millet grown in Garhwal and Kumaon that is part of the staple diet in many parts of the State, was among the products granted GI tags. Similarly, jhangora, a home grown millet commonly cultivated in the rain-fed areas of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, got a tag. Gahat is one of the most important pulses growing in the dry regions of the State, whose medicinal uses have been known to Ayurveda and traditional physicians for centuries. Uttarakhand lal chawal, a red rice organically grown in the Purola region, was also on the list.
Other products to receive GI tags included the Uttarakhand kala bhat (black soybean); malta fruit; chaulai (ramdana), a grain used on fasting days; buransh juice obtained from the red flowers of the Rhododendron arboreum; pahari toor dal; Uttarakhand likhai or wood carvings, Nainital mombatti (candles), the rangwali pichhoda of Kumaon, Ramnagar Nainital litchis, Ramgarh Nainital peaches, Chamoli wooden Ramman masks, and Almora Lakhori mirchis, a chilli variant.
