Satara Farmer Brings Back Rare Mango Once Grown Across Mumbai & Gifted to British Royalty

Article by Hiren Kumar Bose | The Better India

On a quiet June morning in Vechale village in Maharashtra, as the wind rustles through rows of mango trees, one branch stands out — curved gently under the weight of a fruit almost forgotten. It’s not the famed Alphonso or the juicy Kesar.

It’s rarer, older, and named after a man who helped shape Mumbai centuries ago. This is the story of the Cawasji Patel mango, and the farmer who’s trying to bring it back.

At the Deshmukh family’s farm, stands a raiwal mango tree unlike any other. This indigenous sentinel bears grafts of five distinct mango varieties—a living mosaic of flavour and legacy. But this graft, in particular, tells a tale that reaches far beyond the orchard.

This mango tree, growing quietly in a rural farm, connects to the busy Cawasji Patel Street in Fort and the old CP Tank—both named after a man who helped build the city of Mumbai.

The tank, once located near Girgaon, between Grant Road and Marine Lines, was an old water reservoir that supplied drinking water to South Mumbai many years ago.

Today, the variety is considered obscure and rare in Indian markets.

Cawasji Patel funded the construction of the water tank to address the city’s drinking water shortages, leading to the area being named after him. The tank, now defunct, is historically important as part of Mumbai’s early water infrastructure. 

Patel’s legacy is tied to public infrastructure philanthropy. The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island (1909) notes Patel’s contribution to the water project. 

Back then, as Bombay grew, a mango was named after him—a tribute from a city that remembered its patrons in sweet, lasting ways.

Grown in Patel’s orchards in the neighbourhood of Powai Lake, it later spread to orchards springing up in Thane and Pune. The Powai estate had one lakh mango trees spread over 1334 acres.

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The mango growing here was popular among the British as the “Bombay Mango”. In 1833-34, it was more expensive than Ratnagiri’s mango. On May 18, 1838, a basket of this famous Bombay Mango was sent to Queen Victoria of England.

Green fruit with white pulp: What made this mago unique

The fruit was typically harvested green with white pulp, making it unique among mangoes. It was fibreless, which made it an excellent choice for cooking, especially for making jams and jellies—a quality appreciated by both Europeans and the Parsee community.

Here in Vechale, Cawasji Patel lives again—not in stone or brass, but in the flesh of a mango, sweet with memory and dripping with reverence.

This mango tree, growing quietly in a rural farm, connects to the busy Cawasji Patel Street in Fort and the old CP Tank.

Today, the variety is considered obscure and rare in Indian markets as it is overshadowed by commercially successful varieties like the Alphonso, Kesar, Dasehri, and their likes.

The Cawasji (or Kawasji) Patel mango quietly faded from view—and from collective memory.

Three years ago, Chinmay Damle, a research scientist and food enthusiast, noted that specimens from Pune’s Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens had once been dispatched abroad and stood tall in various farms and gardens across Europe and the US.

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While he overlooked the fact that the variety still exists in some Indian orchards, he did shed light on the failed efforts to export it during an era predating refrigeration.

57-year-old Deshmukh is the only custodian of this forgotten variety. “12 years ago, I was gifted a scion of Cowasji Patil, which I grafted on a raiwal (indigenous) mango tree. This June, I got 50 pieces of this variety, each mango weighed 1003 grams. But people rarely buy it as it’s unlike Hapus or Kesar, not sweet enough for our palate. But perfect for diabetics,” Deshmukh says.  

Cawasji Patel: One of the few mangoes named after people

Interestingly, out of the 1,500 mango varieties found in India, only a few are named after people. Cawasji Patel shares this rare honour with a select few.

Once a household name in Gujarati homes, the Cawasji Patel mango was cherished for its large size, small seed, and sweet pulp, especially for making pickles, murabba, and chhundo.

There’s Amrapali, named after the legendary dancer and courtesan from ancient Vaishali; Alphonso, which pays tribute to a Portuguese general from the 18th century; and Kesar, once known as Salebhai’s Ambdi, renamed by Nawab Mahabat Khan III in 1934.

Another well-known variety is Chausa—not named after a person, but after a place and a historic event. In 1539, after defeating the Mughal emperor Humayun in Chausa, Bihar, Sher Shah Suri renamed his favourite mango—originally called Ghazipuria—as Chausa.

From orchards to archives: The Cawasji Patel mango in global research collections

Springer’s “The Mango Genome” does mention the Cawasji (Cowasji) Patel mango variety and includes an image of the fruit, too. The book specifically notes that “hybrids were developed from the cross Cowasji Patel × Pairi, with three hybrids isolated from 153 crosses.

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The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Germplasm Repository in Miami, Florida, includes the Cawasji Patel mango in its collection of over 300 mango types. While listing well-known varieties from Western India like Alphonso, Pairi, and Fernandin, author Sanjana Venu also highlights Cawasji Patel as an important one.

Though the Cawasji Patel mango is no longer found in most orchards across Maharashtra and Gujarat, it is still preserved as germplasm in several important research centres.

These include the Fruit Research Station (FRS) in Vengurla, the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad (which houses 67 other mango varieties), Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth in Ahilyanagar, and the Laldhori Botanical Garden near the Girnar mountains, managed by Junagadh Agricultural University.

Laldhori’s living library of mango diversity

“The Cawasji mango tree at Laldhori is around 80 years old—a rare and regionally significant variety cultivated primarily for conservation and genetic diversity,” shares Dr Dharmendra Mehta, Professor and Head of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding at Junagadh Agricultural University.

Located in Gujarat’s Bhavnath foothills, the Laldhori Botanical Garden is home to over 1,000 species—from sandalwood and teak to aromatic herbs like clove, cardamom, and cinnamon. Among these, the garden also holds a germplasm collection featuring dozens of lesser-known mango varieties, including the elusive Cawasji Patel mango.

Though the Cawasji Patel mango is no longer found in most orchards across Maharashtra and Gujarat, it is still preserved as germplasm in several important research centres.

“These mangoes aren’t widely commercialised or sold in markets,” adds Dr Dharmendra. “But they hold tremendous value for research, genetic conservation, and preserving our horticultural heritage.”

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Every June, Junagadh Agricultural University hosts its Mango Festival, a celebration of India’s mango biodiversity. It was at one such festival that Sumeet Samsudin Jhariya, an Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) Innovative Farmer awardee from Junagadh’s Bhalchel village, first came across the Cawasji Patel variety.

“I saw it among more than 150 varieties displayed,” he recalls. “I have over 200 mango varieties growing on my farm, and I wanted a sapling—but I couldn’t get one. I still keep a photo of it saved on my phone.”

The variety that rules Gujarati kitchens

Once a household name in Gujarati homes, the Cawasji Patel mango was cherished for its large size, small seed, and sweet pulp, especially for making pickles, murabba, and chhundo. But as high-yielding commercial varieties like Totapuri and Rajapuri gained dominance, farmers moved away from cultivating this heritage mango—leading to its quiet disappearance.

“Now, people don’t even know they’ve lost something special,” reflects Dr Dharmendra.

Whether or not the Cawasji Patel is truly unmatched is a matter for debate—but its conservation, and that of other forgotten varieties, is critical.

“Preserving the germplasm—the genetic material—of traditional mango varieties is key to biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and food security,” explains Dr Anant Morade, fruit scientist at the National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (NIASM) in Baramati, Maharashtra.

A mango that’s connected to festivals, folk and family traditions

“These mangoes aren’t just crops. Many are tied to local festivals, folk medicine, and family traditions,” he says. “Conserving them means safeguarding cultural memory. And it must go beyond labs—we need on-farm conservation and strong community-driven efforts.”

The mango was popular among the British as the “Bombay Mango”.

One model of such grassroots preservation is found in Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh, where the Society for Conservation of Mango Diversity (SCMD) has made significant progress.

Their farmers’ catalogues document more than 3,500 mango varieties, keeping alive both biodiversity and community wisdom. According to Dr Shailendra Rajan, Director of the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture in Lucknow, 34 of these have been submitted for official recognition under India’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA).

So far, over 10,000 grafts of non-commercial mangoes have been propagated—including forgotten gems like Gilas, Fakira, Taimuria, and Ramkela—now making a comeback in niche markets and fetching better prices for farmers.

And Deshmukh, who stumbled upon the Cawasji Patel mango while nurturing his orchard in Maharashtra, sums it up best: “Now that I’ve discovered something truly unique in my mango collection—something no one else has—I intend to propagate it. Not every action stems from commercial gain; sometimes, you do it purely out of love.”

All pictures courtesy: Special Arrangement

Taste of Life:‘Kawasji–Patel’ mango trees still stand tall at Europe, US farms and gardens

Chinmay Damle | Hindustan Times

Cowasjee Rustomjee Patel (1744 – 1799), became the Patel of Bombay in 1763 after the death of his father, Rustom Dorab. When the English conquered the neighbouring island of Sashtee and its capital Thane in 1774, he was appointed the Patel of those villages too. He was presented a Dress of Honour in 1775 by the Governor, William Hornby, for his services. He held the lucrative contract for supplying shipping vessels to the East India Company. He encouraged the Parsees to migrate to Bombay and Thane from Gujarat. In 1776, he constructed a tank at Khetwadi, the area still popularly known as CP Tank.

The mango, “Kawasji – Patel”, was gathered green with white pulp. It had no fibre and hence was an excellent choice for cooking. The Europeans and the Parsees preferred the mango to cook jams and jellies. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

A variety of mango, grown in his orchards in Thane and Poona, was named after him. The mango, “Kawasji – Patel”, was gathered green with white pulp. It had no fibre and hence was an excellent choice for cooking. The Europeans and the Parsees preferred the mango to cook jams and jellies.

In the early nineteenth century, the Europeans started to travel more between the continents. Not all officers and their wives who went back to Europe would miss the fruits they had had in India. But “Kawasji – Patel” was a variety they wished they had in Europe.

Several efforts were made to take “Kawasji – Patel” to Europe. They all failed. The Europeans realised that if they wanted to devour mangoes in their homeland, it had to be either Alphonso or Pairi.

An experiment was carried out at the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens, Poona, in 1900 to test the relative keeping and ripening qualities of Pairi and Alphonso varieties.

Twenty-four fruits of each variety were used and an additional twenty-four of Pairi were kept as a check. It was found that Alphonso was the better keeper. All the Alphonso fruits, even when plucked green, coloured beautifully, assuming an orange-yellow hue. The Pairis coloured feebly and were green to some extent, even when fully ripe. The Alphonso mangoes kept the firmness of their flesh till the last. The Pairis became watery soon. It was then decided that the Alphonso was the variety to export.

But exporting mangoes to Europe was easier said than done. The fruit had to stay fresh for a month and a half without cold storage. The first task was to find the right containers to store the mangoes on the ship.

Experiments carried out for twelve years at the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens showed that the great desideratum was a light, thief-proof, rain-proof, and well-ventilated package that would take approximately 75 fruits. As the packing material, hemp fibre and dry grass were used. The fruits were suspended in muslin bags fixed above and below on to trays. Soft, dry grass was found to be more satisfactory than hemp fibre, provided the fruits were wrapped in tissue paper.

A trial was conducted where two dozen Alphonso mangoes were sent to Karachi. They reached the destination without much damage. The fruits were then sent to Marseilles, Trieste, and London by Mail steamer. Cold storage was not available on these steamers. The fruits so sent, with the exception of a few that arrived at Marseilles, were in a hopeless condition on arrival. The cost of sending the fruit was also very high.

The Agricultural Department concluded that the European market was then limited and that until cold storage was provided for mangoes on the Europe-bound steamers the fruit would not arrive in good condition.

When this was announced to the public, some letters criticising the department appeared in newspapers. The Ganeshkhind Farm was told that fruit had been satisfactorily sent from the West Indies and from India to Europe and that they should consult fruit merchants and traders to gain expertise.

Accordingly, in 1913, an inquiry was made with four shipping companies in Bombay as to the number of mangoes exported per season. The 1913 exports of the four companies totalled 1,470 dozen mangoes. Of these, 129 dozen mangoes were sent from Poona. The fruits were said to be exported in small wooden ventilated partitioned boxes holding one fruit per compartment.

Messrs. George Monro Ltd., Covent Garden Market, London, in 1914 replied to the Superintendent, Ganeshkhind Farm, as follows – “We receive occasional consignments of mangoes generally sent to us by business people who have bought them from Bombay and Poona. We have also had several instances of traders who have endeavoured to send large quantities but they have never arrived in good condition except when they have come on small lots brought personally. There is a demand for really fine mangoes from Bombay and Poona if they arrive in good conditions, but the difficulty of getting suitable temperatures has always been in the way of this with any larger quantities.”

The British Council in Brindisi, a port town in Southern Italy, wrote in 1914 – “There is no commercial import of mangoes here. In the first instance, they would arrive during the Italian fruit season, when native fruit is cheap and abundant. Secondly, the Brindisi Port said that P & O has no cold storage and the mangoes are only taken as a favour to their own officials. There is no doubt that mangoes will arrive in good condition, if properly packed, but there is no sale for them here or elsewhere in Italy”.

As had been seen by the trials at the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens the possibility of Indian shipments arriving in good condition was small. Since importing mangoes to Europe proved to be a nearly impossible task, the department decided to send mango plants to Europe and to the US.

The first task was to design appropriate containers. G Marshall Woodrow recommended the use of Wardian cases to transport trees. These were essentially boxes with a glass roof protected by strips of wood. Ventilation took place through sheets of pierced zinc, and boxes were raised from the ground on square wooden legs. These cases were expensive and held few plants in proportion to the material used.

Ordinary wood packing cases had been used at the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens for the dispatch of plants to Washington DC, Dongola, and Cairo. Most of the plants reached their destinations safely.

The annual report of the Hawaii Experiment Station for 1908 gives an account of shipping mango grafts from the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens to Washington by mail steamer. The plants arrived in good condition but the immature wood died and the plants became defoliated either during the journey or on arrival. The report recommended the packing only of plants with mature wood and dormant buds.

Experiments at Ganeshkhind Farm showed that the plants must be small, hardy, and dormant with no diseased or weak branches. During the travel, ventilation and watering must be arranged. Both could be secured by fixing wire netting over the top of the box and nailing over it strips of wood at intervals of two inches, instead of putting on a lid. The cases were to be kept on the deck of the steamer out of the way of sea water and tied in a fixed position. The plants were to be watered lightly with fresh water through the top of the case every second day in hot weather.

Mango plants sent from the Ganeshkhind Botanical Gardens still stand tall at various farms and gardens in Europe and the US. These include the “Kawasji – Patel” variety too.

Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at [email protected]