Geographical Indications of Uttarakhand :

The word GI is an indication of the geographical location which indicates the product associated with a certain area or region. Actually, it has become a trademark of that region and the place becomes famous by the name of that product. It is used for agricultural, natural and manufactured goods having a special quality and established a reputation. There are also products which have two geographical indications, one for the name and another for the logo.

Darjeeling tea became the first GI tagged product in India, in 2004-05, since then by May 2017, 295 had been added to the list. The Geographical Indication is the sign used on the products that have the regional origin and which can be depicted from its label.

Basmati Rice :

Basmati is special long grain aromatic rice grown in a particular Indo-Gangetic Plains geographical region of the Indian sub-continent.
Historically it is being produced in undivided India from long time and with a recorded history of over 200 years. Uttarakhand is currently producing 330,000 quintals of basmati rice from 11,000 hectares of area, mainly in four districts of Udhamsingh Nagar, Dehradun, Haridwar and parts of Nainital. When the hill state was formed in 2000, basmati rice was produced only in an area of only 1,500 hectares.

About Basmati Rice :

Basmati is a variety of long, slender-grained aromatic rice which is traditionally from the Indian subcontinent. As of 2018-19, India exported to over 90% of the overseas basmati rice market, while Pakistan accounted for the remainder, according to the Indian state-run Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority  and the Pakistan government-run Economic Survey of Pakistan.Many countries use domestically grown basmati rice crops; however, basmati is geographically exclusive to select districts of India and Pakistan and Nepal.

Aroma and flavour :

Basmati rice has a typical pandan-like (Pandanus amaryllifolius leaf) flavour caused by the aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.Basmati grains contain about 0.09 ppm of this aromatic chemical compound naturally, a level that is about 12 times more than non-basmati rice varieties, giving basmati its distinctive spicy fragrance and flavour. This natural aroma is also found in cheese, fruits and other cereals. It is a flavoring agent approved in the United States and Europe, and is used in bakery products for aroma.

During cooking, the level of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline decreases. Soaking the rice for 30 minutes before cooking permits 20% shorter cooking times and preserves more of the 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.

Basmati Rice Controversy :

According to experts Basmati is a produce of India. Countries such as the United States have tried to claim Basmati as their production but failed so far. RiceTec, a US company selling Basmati (grown in the US) under the trademark Texmati and Kasmati, was even granted a US patent. The government of India reacted and a high-level inter-ministerial group from the ministries of commerce and agriculture along with the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) and Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) were able to furnish evidence to support their case. The patent was declared void.

Basmati, the scented pearl, has been the pride of subcontinent for centuries with earliest records of cultivation in 1766. Scented rice from the royal kitchens of Emperor Akbar included Mushkin (red Basmati). Real transcripts recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari, Akbar’s 16th-century biography, refer to Basmati being grown in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh (MP). Records from the British era indicate cultivation of Basmati in several parts of the country including MP.

Tejpata :

Tejpata or Indian bay leaf, which is known to add flavour to dishes and also possesses several medicinal properties, has become the first botanical plant from Uttarakhand to receive the Geographical Indications (GI) tag.

After finding a place in the Geographical Register of India, a GI certificate was issued by the Chennai-based office. So far, 261 products have been registered in the registry from the country. Tejpata (Botanical name: Cinnamomum tamala Family: Lauraceae ) is grown in all districts of the state barring Udham Singh Nagar and Hardwar districts. It grows mostly in shady places at the height of 1000 metre-2,200 meter.

In Uttarakhand, more than 10,000 farmers are involved in the production of Tejpata and the annual turnover is 1000 metric tone. A state-level committee was also constituted by the name of the Uttarakhand Tejpata Samiti Gopeshwar. From the markets of Tanakpur, Haldwani, Ramnagar and Rishikesh, Tejpata reaches the final destination in Delhi and Mumbai. From here, it is also exported. Tejpata are plucked between December and March. The yield from the tree increases between 10-20 per cent after five years.

About Tejpata :

Cinnamomum tamala, Indian bay leaf', also known as tejpat, tejapatta, Malabar leaf, Indian bark, Indian cassia, or malabathrum, is a tree in the family Lauraceae that is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. It can grow up to 20 m (66 ft) tall. Its leaves have a clove-like aroma with a hint of peppery taste, they are used for culinary and medicinal purposes. It is thought to have been one of the major sources of the medicinal plant leaves known in classic and medieval times as malabathrum (or malobathrum).

Characteristics :

The leaves, known as tejapatta or tejpatta in Hindi, tejpat in Nepali, Maithili and Assamese, tejpata in Bengali, vazhanayila in Malayalam, and tamalpatra  in Marathi and in original Sanskrit, are used extensively in the cuisines of India, Nepal, and Bhutan, particularly in the Moghul cuisine of North India and Nepal and in tsheringma herbal tea in Bhutan.  It is often used in kumbilappam or chakka-ada, an authentic sweet from Kerala, infusing its characteristic flavor to the dumplings. They are often labeled as "Indian bay leaves," or just "bay leaf", causing confusion with the leaf from the bay laurel, a tree of Mediterranean origin in a different genus; the appearance and aroma of the two are quite different. Bay laurel leaves are shorter and light- to medium-green in color, with one large vein down the length of the leaf, while tejpat leaves are about twice as long and wider, usually olive green in color, with three veins down the length of the leaf. There are five types of tejpat leaves and they impart a strong cassia- or cinnamon-like aroma to dishes, while the bay laurel leaf's aroma is more reminiscent of pine and lemon.