Substack

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Rock climbers in demand!

In Kerala there is an acute shortage of people who can climb coconut trees amd pluck coconuts, so much so that the Kerala government even announced an international design competition to develop commercial coconut picking machines.



In California, they are searching for people who can climb up the massive blades of wind turbines for inspecting turbines, cleaning them and repairing them.



And both jobs are highly remunerative. A coconut plucker in present day Kerala can make Rs 300-500 a day for a couple of hours work. Similarly, the cost of a basic one-day job by two blade climbers in California starts at $2,000!

In California, the free-wheeling spirit of capitalist America has tapped into the supply of recreational climbers to incentivize them into cleaning and repairing blades. Is there a similar market in Kerala, as part of tourist packages to Kuttanad? How does "coconut tree climbing adventure tourism" sound???

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