Bengaluru: Gokarna’s Sannikatta Salt Fields in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka is the only natural salt production centre in Karnataka.
Natives in Sannikatta have been producing the natural golden brown salt from the estuaries of the Aghanashini River for more than 300 years. In this traditional process, salt is harvested during summer, from March to May, before the monsoon arrives.
Around 50 families practice their ancestral tradition of salt farming in Sannikatta and they are carrying forward a tradition that has been practised for at least 300 years.
In 1952, the families came together to form a cooperative society to combine the efforts of all the salt farmers who were earlier working individually. The society now produces 10,000 tonnes of natural golden brown salt annually.
This year the salt farmers have endured significant losses due to heavy pre-monsoon rains. The rain water dilutes the density of salt accumulated in the salt pans and puts a stop on salt production.
Known for its health benefits and a distinct taste, the locals swear by the Sannikatta Salt, which adds a rich flavour to the food cooked using it.
The salt workers of Sannikatta have a long legacy of endurance and rising above adversity. It’s not just the legacy of maintaining an ancestral tradition, but more importantly, resisting the colonial masters and taking part in the freedom struggle.
Emboldened by the success of Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha in 1930, the local activists and salt farmers set off on their own salt March in Ankola the same year, a few kilometres away from the Sannikatta Salt Fields, defying the British authorities.
The locals, particularly the salt farmers, had every reason to defy the British Raj, because, as elsewhere the repressive regime had for decades imposed exorbitant taxes on the production and sale of salt in Sannikatta.
According to local sources, so repressive was the regime that the farmers themselves could hardly afford to consume the salt they worked so hard to produce.
Under the iron fist of the Raj, not even a pinch of the Sannikatta Salt could pass through the checkpoints they had set up along the banks of the Aghanaashini River. Any offender caught by the guards would face prison that was exclusively built for the salt offenders near the salt fields.
Around 76 years from the British colonial rule, farmers, farm labourers and skilled rural artisans continue to face serious hardships and challenges as they produce food and essentials for us for a meagre income, even as their incomes continue to dwindle and their livelihood threatened. Do we care?
