eeretekeh

I would love to see someone come up with an ingenious solution for a similar job, but is much more dangerous, difficult and nuanced - climbing palm (palmyra) trees to get palmyra juice.

The tools they use are a loop made of fiber from palmyra leaf and a leather shield. The பனையேரி (literally means palmyra climber) wears the loop over their foot and the leather shield over their chest and they pull themselves up to the top of the tree. It's a brutally punishing and exhausting task.

(0) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0suSGmww9lQ

I am from a southern district of Tamil Nadu.

Here, we follow a different method to cut the coconuts. The harvesters do not climb the tree. Instead, they tie together bamboo poles to form one long pole and tie a sickle to one end. The harvester then cuts the coconut bunch from the ground.

It is much more efficient and faster than climbing the trees. When I was young, I was fascinated by their craft. They are so good, that they could determine how ripen the coconuts were just by looking from the ground. Some times from very tall trees that are over 100 feet tall. And to balance a pole that large..