India's mango man, father of 300 varieties

workers sort out harvested mangoes at an orchard in Malihabad, some 30 kms from Lucknow.

Kaleem Ullah Khan, 82, has earned one of India's highest civilian honours for his work creating new mango varieties

Every day, Indian octogenarian Kaleem Ullah Khan wakes at dawn, prays, then ambles about a mile to his 120-year-old mango tree, which he has coaxed into producing more than 300 varieties of the beloved fruit over the years.

His footsteps quicken as he draws nearer and his eyes light up as he peers closely at the branches through his spectacles, caressing the leaves and sniffing the fruits to see if they are ripe.

"For the naked eye, it's just a tree. But if you see through your mind, it's a tree, an orchard, and the biggest mango college in the world."

He nurtured a tree to produce seven new kinds of fruit, but it blew down in a storm. 

One of the earliest varieties he named "Aishwarya" after Bollywood star and 1994 Miss World beauty pageant winner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. To this day, it remains one of his "best creations".

Others he named in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cricket hero Sachin Tendulkar. Another is "Anarkali", or pomegranate blossom, and has two layers of different skin and two different pulps, each with a distinctive aroma. 

- Famed fruit -

The leaves are a patchwork of different textures and smells. In some places, they are yellow and glossy, and in others, a dark, dull green. 

His method for grafting is intricate, and involves diligently slicing a branch from one variety, leaving an open wound into which a branch from another variety is spliced and sealed with tape. 

Khan's skills have won him numerous accolades, among them one of India's highest civilian honours in 2008, as well as invitations to Iran and United Arab Emirates.

- Climate threat -

Mostly owned by families for generations, the orchards are a mango lover's paradise, with the best-known variety possibly the melt-in-the-mouth Dasheri, named for the nearby village where it originated in the 18th century.

The number of varieties has also fallen, which Khan blames on intensive farming techniques and the widespread use of cheap fertilisers and insecticides.

But he still has a good life, he says.

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Originally published as India's mango man, father of 300 varieties