Mayurbhanj’s Red Ant Chutney

Mayurbhanj’s red ant chutney receives GI tag.

The Chutney

• Made with - The chutney is made with read weaver ants by the tribal people of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
• Other name - It is also known by the name Similipal kai Chutney.
• Making - Red weaver ants are collected from the nests along with their eggs and cleaned.
• After that, the chutney is prepared by mixing and grinding salt, ginger, garlic and chillies.
• Characteristics - The hot chutney has a pungent and sour taste and is appetizing.
• The savoury chutney is popular in the region for its healing properties and also deemed important for nutritional security of the tribal people.
• Medicinal values - Consuming the species can help boost the immune system and prevent diseases.
• The tribal healers also prepare a medicinal oil in which they dip the ants along with pure mustard oil.
• After a month, this concoction is used as a body oil for babies and to cure rheumatism, gout, ringworm and other diseases by the tribes.

Red Weaver Ants

• Other name - Red weaver ants are also known as kai pimpudi.
• Found in - The red weaver ants are indigenous to Mayurbhanj and are found in abundance in the jungles of every block area of the district, including in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, throughout the year.
• Nests - The red weaver ants form colonies with multiple nests in trees.
• Each nest is made of leaves stitched together with the silk produced by their larvae.
• They mostly lodge in trees like mango, sal, jambu and jackfruit.
• The nests are strong enough against wind and impermeable to water.
• Kai’s nests are usually elliptical in shape and range in size from single small leaf folded and bound onto itself to large nest consisting of many leaves and measure over half a metre in length.
• Families - The Kai families consist of three categories of members, workers, major workers and queens.
• Workers and major workers are mostly orange coloured.
• Workers are 5-6 millimetres long, major workers are 8-10 mm long with strong legs and large mandibles and queens are 20-25 mm long and greenish brown coloured.
• Diet - They feed on small insects and other invertebrates like beetles, flies and hymenopterans.
• They do not sting but have a painful bite into which they can secrete irritant chemicals from their abdomens.
• Bio-control agents - They are also recognised as bio-control agents because they are aggressive and will prey on most arthropods entering their territory.
• They protect a variety of tropical crops against insect pests, acting as an alternative to chemical insecticides.
• Nutritional values - Red weaver ants are found to contain valuable proteins, calcium, zinc, vitamin B-12, iron, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, amino acids, among others.