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Post: In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.

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Eight-year-old Indian Klimullah Khan wakes up every day at dawn and then prays until he walks about two kilometers to his 120-year-old tree, forcing it to produce more than 300 varieties of mangoes over the years.
The man’s footsteps quicken as he approaches his tree, and a spark appears in his eyes. As he approaches, he carefully examines its branches through his glasses, then touches its leaves and smells its fruit to see if it is ripe.
“This is my reward after decades of hard work under the scorching sun,” says the 82-year-old from Bagh, a small town in Melihabad.
“When you look at it, it looks like a tree. But if you look closely, you’ll notice it’s a tree, an orchard, and the greatest mango mixture in the world.”
Khan was a teenager when he dropped out of school and began his first experiments in producing new mango varieties by grafting or harvesting different parts of the tree.
He managed to produce seven new varieties of mango on one tree, but it was uprooted by a storm that hit the area.

  • In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.
    In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.

Since 1987, the 120-year-old tree, which has produced 300 different varieties of mangoes, each with its own flavor, texture, color and size, has been a source of joy and pride, he says.
One of the first sleeves was named ‘Aishwarya’ in honor of Bollywood star and 1994 Miss World winner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. This mango variety remains one of the “best mangoes I have ever tasted”.
He says that this species is “as beautiful as an actress, because the weight of a grain reaches more than a kilo, and the skin is crimson and has a very sweet taste”.
Two other species are named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cricket champion Sachin Tendulkar. As for ‘Anarkali’, which means pomegranate blossom, it’s the name Khan gave to a type of mango that has two layers of skin and pulp, each with its own distinct flavor.

  • In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.
    In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.

“People change, but sleeves last forever,” says Khan, a father of eight. “When people eat Sachin mangoes in a few years, they will remember the cricket champion.”

Its 30-foot-tall tree has a strong trunk with thick, broad branches that provide shade from the summer sun.
As for the leaves, they are a mixture of texture and smell, appearing pale yellow on some branches and light and dark green on others.
“Just as no two fingerprints are the same in the world, no tree produces two identical types of mango,” explains Khan, adding that “nature has given this fruit human qualities.”

  • In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.
    In the images, an 80-year-old man has a 120-year-old tree that produces 300 varieties of mango.

Khan’s grafting method is complicated by carefully cutting off one type of branch, leaving a hole open for the other type, and wrapping it with duct tape.
“Once the branch has hardened, remove the tape,” he says, hoping that “the new branch will be ready for the next season and will produce a new type in two years.”
Khan’s feat has earned him much praise, including one of the highest honors bestowed on Indian citizens, which he received in 2008.
“I can grow mangoes even in the desert,” he says.
India is the largest mango producer in the world, accounting for half of the world’s production of this fruit. Melihabad in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh contains over 30,000 hectares of orchards and produces around 25% of the country’s total harvest.

Source: Al Ittihad

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