World's Largest Citrus Fruit - Chakkotha

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Closer home is what I would look at today. Devanahalli, near Bengaluru. Today the things we get to our minds when we talk about Devanahalli is the Bengaluru International Airport, lot of real estate projects mushrooming in the vicinity of the Airport, high land prices, lot of small time land owners becoming rich overnight, software companies coming up with their new campuses. A little extension of the thought may lead you to a thought of driving/cycling/riding to Nandi Hills.

But there is more to this place. The farmers here grow the World's Largest  Citrus fruit. Devanahalli Pomelo, in the local language "Chakkotha" fruit. Yes many of us here have eaten this and have not even realised the importance of this fruit.

The world over, Pomelo is  used in exotic cooking, particularly in Thai desserts, jams and jellies.

The Pomelo fruit is unique to the Devanahalli region where it is cultivated. The shallow, well-drained, deep soil in and around Devanahalli is ideal for its cultivation. Generally, there are 60 to 70 trees in an acre and each acre yields about 100 fruits generally weighing between 2 kgs and 2.5 kgs.
Chakotha is a thick, yellow-skinned fruit. It is the largest citrus fruit in the world and belongs to the Rutaceae family. It is known in the West as pomelo, Shaddock, Batavia lemon and its scientifically name is Citrus Grandis. The fruit is consumed as it is and is also used in cooking to make desserts and jellies. It can weigh sometimes up to 10 kg.

What makes it imperative to preserve the Devanahalli Chakotha is that the type of Pomelo grown here cannot be grown anywhere else. The unique nature of Devanahalli soil-loamy, clay and neither too dry nor moist- disallows the fruit from being taken to other locations in the state for cultivation.

Today due to high prices of land, the farmers are selling away the lands to builders and this crop is in the verge of extinction as very few are growing it now. But the Horticulture Department has begun conservation of germ plasm of the fruit to retain its originality. Plants have been collected at the department's biocentre in Hulimavu and are being propagated to farmers.

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA