NYT: Lynsey Addario : India's Coconuts

Photo © Lynsey Addario/NYT-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times has featured a photo gallery by photojournalist Lynsey Addario documenting coconut pluckers in Kerala, India.

Having visited and photographed in Kerala a number of times, I saw many of these coconut pluckers (as well as palm toddy tappers) climbing the trees with an incredible agility...and yet, it never crossed my mind to document them and their occupation.

It appears there's a scarcity of coconut pluckers in Kerala which threatens to undermine the production of coconuts. The captions of the gallery informs us that India produces 15 billion coconuts a year, and just about every one is plucked by hand!

As visitors to India know, every part of the coconut tree and it fruit is used for food, moisturizers, furniture, and religious offerings.