INTERNATIONAL: Harvesting betel nuts is a dangerous job as their trees can grow up to 20 meters high or even more. With ongoing laborer shortages, 50-year-old Ganapathi Bhat decided to invent the tree-climbing scooter to get the job done easily and safely.

India is one of the world’s biggest producers of betel nuts, also known as areca nuts, with about 1.2 million tons produced between 2020 to 2021. Contributing to this number was Bhat, who owns an 18-acre farm of towering areca palm trees.

Bhat had worked on his invention since 2014 because of the rising cost of labor and his advancing age. His family was worried about him climbing the tall trees, which can be very slippery during the rainy season. The villagers thought he was mad for trying to invent the scooter as he fell constantly in the beginning.

After four years of working with his engineering partner and spending about 4 million rupees, or roughly $52,000 US dollars in research and development, he was finally successful in inventing the current tree-scooter.

The scooter consists of a small German motor, a seat, and a set of wheels. Bhat is able to scale up a 20 meter tree within 5 seconds. He can harvest betel nuts from more than 300 palm trees compared to the 100 trees per day through the traditional manual climbing method.

Bhat has now sold more than 300 scooters at 62,000 rupees, or roughly $819 US dollars each. He said that he feels proud for being able to help people with his invention. His life is now complete.

Currently, Bhat and his engineering partner are working on an advanced scooter to scale coconut trees which have a thicker girth and curved trunks. He hopes to unveil this new invention soon as well.