Indian farmer invents tree-climbing 'scooter'
An Indian farmer has invented a "tree scooter" to help him scale palm trees and harvest betel nuts.
One scooter can harvest 300 areca palms in a day, more than three times the amount of the traditional manual climbing method.
Ganapathi Bhat, 50, said: "I feel that my life is complete now."
Ganapathi Bhat can scale 20 metres up a tree in just five seconds on the machine to harvest nuts and he's sold over 300 so far.
The farmer, from the coastal town of Mangaluru, said the scooter was created to tackle the scarcity and cost of labour and the difficulties in harvesting betel nuts, also known as areca nuts, during the rainy season by the traditional climbing method.
The machine as a harness, seat and seat-belt and operates using a small motor and a set of wheels.
So far, Mr Bhat said he has so far sold more than 300 scooters, which cost 62,000 Indian rupees (£614) each.
"Villagers asked me if I was mad. They had doubts about my invention... whether it would work in the rainy season because the trees would be slippery,” he said.
The inventor spent about four million rupees researching and developing the scooter and is now conducting research for another machine to scale coconut trees, which have a thicker trunk.
Video at linked article
