Rubber tapping in Kerala:

The rubber plant is not a native plant of India. Dutch colonialists who also cultivated rubber in their
plantations in Indonesia introduced the rubber plant to Kerala, India, because of its similar tropical climate.
The Rubber plant (its botanical name is Havea brasiliensis) produces sticky, white latex that is collected and
processed to produce natural rubber. A rubber plant has to grow for about seven years before it can be
tapped on a regular basis. A rubber tree can be productive for over 20 years. Rubber trees are characterized
by their straight trunks and smooth green leaves. The rubber is harvested by rubber tappers who make a
long curving cut on the outer bark of the trunk of the rubber tree. The latex from within the tree seeps to the
surface of the cut and trickles down the cut into a container, tied to the tree by the rubber tapper. Every
morning the rubber tapper empties the cup tied to each tree, in the area of the plantation that he works in.
After a few days he will make another cut just above or below the first cut, thus extracting more latex from
the rubber tree. Eventually after about 20 years the rubber tree will stop producing latex, upon which a new
tree is planted in its place.