Jualikata (Mayurbhanj), March 5: Panamani Patra lives in one of the most backward districts of Orissa. But the woman is not complaining, as she has Mother Nature to count on.

Patra (38) and hundreds of other villagers in Mayurbhanj?s Bangiriposi block may be poor, but they do not have to worry about starvation. The escape from hunger lies in the millions of sal leaves that grow in the forests of the district.

As Patra and her family of three get busy tearing the tender leaves of the sal trees ? which account for 70 per cent of the state?s forests ? in the Duarasunighat hills, starvation is far from their minds. Patra lives in Jualikata village under Syamsundarpur gram panchayat.

While the KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region is known for hunger-related problems, the situation in Mayurbhanj, which has the highest tribal population, is a lot better thanks to the profusion of sal leaves.

Everyday, trucks stop at Jualikata and scores of other villages to collect hand-stitched sal leaves, which are used to make khalis (leaf plates) and dunas (bowls).

With the demand for these biodegradable and eco-friendly plates on the rise, more and more tribals are venturing into the sal forests for money. The trade had started around 10 years ago.

For every 1,000 khalis the tribals make, they get Rs 14 from the local trader. Though the money sounds hardly exciting, it does help the villagers sustain themselves.

?With the forests full of sal leaves, who can die of starvation?? asks Kashinath Tudu of Anajodi village, who thinks the question of starvation is a preposterous one.

Sakuntala Patra of Jualikata feels that the leaves are the best insurance against starvation. The village has no irrigated land and the crops are dependent on monsoon.

?In zero-industry Mayurbhanj, it could have meant disaster for the tribals. But the sal leaves have ensured that the tribals get their livelihood,? said Swapan Goswami, chief executive of the Orissa Rural Marketing Society in Baripada.

The backward Mayurbhanj, which heavily depends on government doles, has been allotted Rs 37 crore for this fiscal. ?In such a scenario, the tribals could have died of starvation. But luckily there has been no cases of starvation deaths in Mayurbhanj,? said district collector V. Karthikeyan Pandian.

Villagers like Patra usually leave for the forests early in the morning and return home before the sun becomes merciless.

After coming back, the tribals unload the sacks and place the leaves in the open for drying. Next morning, the leaves are stitched using fine bamboo sticks. The leaves are then stacked together and made into bundles, which are picked up by the local traders. Taking a step forward, the tribals have formed hundreds of self-help groups giving each other financial support in times of need.

At the Syamsundarpur branch of Baitarani Gramya Bank, deposits made by the sal-pluckers have ballooned to Rs 23.16 lakh till the end of last year from Rs 15.7 lakh three years ago.

No wonder local anganwadi worker Debaki Patra says: ?Anyone who has died of starvation in Mayurbhanj must be lazy or mad.?