<p></p><p>Like Malwana is famous for Rambuttan and Nawala for pineapple, even a small child knows that the village ‘Bataleeya’ is famous for cashew.The Bataleeya cashew industry has a history of over 200 years. During the colonial days people called the village as ‘Kadjugama’, because kadju is the Sinhala word for cashew in English. The village Bataleeya is located on the Colombo- Kandy main road, a few kilometers away from the Nittambuwa town. Legend says that cashew and its plum (Puhulan) had become a delicious fruit of colonial rulers such as the Portuguese and British who ruled our country for over three centuries.</p> <p>According to a book titled “Cashew plantation in Sri Lanka”, written by a local historian A.D. Norman during 1920s, Portuguese and British monarchs had never forgotten to stop at Kadjugama at Bataleeya during their visits to the hill capital Kandy. </p><p>This bill board was displayed at Kadjugama for several decades, but unfortunately the present day generation who pass the Bataleeya village will never be able to see it again as the board had to be removed by local authorities later due to the expansion work of the Colombo - Kandy main road. The wordings of the board prompted former President Ranasinghe Premadasa to extend a helping hand to over 1500 villagers in Kadjugama whose livelihood depends on the sale of cashew to people travellers, especially foreigners.</p> <p>According to an elderly cashew seller 71 year old Gamage Hinniappuhamy : “Even today the livelihood of over 4000 villagers depends on cashew nuts,”. When Daily News visited the Kadjugama last week to look into the wayside business activities of cashew sellers, Gamage revealed a fascinating story. It was Gamage’s grandfather, the late Haramanis Singho who was a popular cashew seller during 1930’ who had the rare opportunity of visiting the king’s palace, located in the vicinity of the sacred Dalada Maligawa(Temple of the Tooth), The official residence of the British Govenor was the King’s Palace. The British Governor and his wife had a habit of buying cashew nuts from Haramanis Singho while on their way to Colombo and back to Kandy. </p><p>One day Haramanis Singho’s wife offered some cashew plums (Kadju puhulan) to the wife of the British Governor, who was expecting a baby. As the cashew plums give a sour and sweet taste, she highly admired the plums rather than the nuts after partaking it with some salt mixed with chillie powder, offered by Haramanis’ wife Punchinona. This impressed the wife of British Governor to invite Haramanis Singho and his wife to their palace. The Governor also gave money to construct the wattle and daub house of Haramanis. Most cashew sellers at Bataleeya are not in a sound financial position. Many of them are still living in small houses with minimal infrastructure facilities. Almost all cashew sellers are of the view that the cashew industry at Bataleeya will become a dying industry unless authorities take firm action to revamp the industry. </p><p>A young cashew seller, Nimal Sahabandu who undertook the business from his father two decades ago said the cashew season starts during the months of March and April every year and they bring raw cashew nuts from distant places such as Wewagama, Giriulla, Kuliyapitiya, Ampara, Mahiyangana, Galgamuwa, Wariyapola and Galewela villages. “Our daily income depends on customers who visit our stalls and I request authorities of the Department of Small Industries to visit Bataleeya and discuss with cashew sellers about our business activities,”. </p><p> A long standing cashew seller 46- year old Kusumsiri Hewa said about 75 families in the Bataleeya village are engaged in the cashew industry. </p><p>“As there is no proper plan adopted by authorities, only a few people stop at Bataleeya on their way”. He proposed authorities to instruct every private and CTB, long distance buses to stop at the village at least for a few minutes to enable passengers to purchase cashew.</p> <p>He recalled an incident how a former President and a group of ministers visited Bataleeya village and made arrangements to stop all long distance passenger buses and tourist coaches at the village for a few minutes to enable them to purchase cashew.</p> <p>Kusumsiri said Bataleeya cashew sellers expect the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa also to visit the village and personally look into the needs of cashew sellers. “We are sure President Rajapaksa who has the touch of common people will help us to revamp our 200 - year old cashew industry,”he said. Anyone who passes the Bataleeya village could see about 30 female cashew sellers on either side of the road. They have erected temporary stalls from early in the morning until evening and hail vehicles that ply between Colombo and Kandy to stop at the village. </p><p>Nalika Attanayake, is also another senior woman cashew seller who has been engaged in the industry for the last 25 years. She said cashew cultivation could be developed even in the surrounding areas of Bataleeya and requested authorities to cultivate budded cashew plants in large number of unutilized state lands currently idling in the area. She also proposed officials in the Bataleeya Divisional Secretariat to construct attractive cashew stalls to attract thousands of visitors who pass Bataleeya at Kadjugama. Another long standing cashew seller, K. Surasinghe at Bataleeya requested the Government to stop importing Indian cashew to Sri Lanka since it will be a threat to local cashew sellers and thousands of cultivators. </p><p>He said if authorities visit the village and see for themselves about the large quantity of cashew lying in shops and stalls, they would never allow businessmen to import cashew. He said there is a vast difference of the taste between the local and imported cashew and asked businessmen not to cheat buyers by selling low quality imported nuts saying that they were local cashew. He further said like in the past all passenger buses and tourist buses should be directed to stop at Kadjugama at least for a few minutes for the benefit of cashew sellers. A resident of Wewagama and the owner of a ten acre cashew cultivation, Dayasena Samarakoon said he earns a sufficient income from cashew every year and proposed authorities to establish a canned factory to process cashew plums (Puhulan) for local and foreign markets.<br></p><p></p>