Man from Chamba revives traditional ‘Chukh’ flavour

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 20

“Chamba Chukh’, a unique and traditional recipe made of chilli in the tribal areas of Chamba district, is dying slowly. Instead of making ‘chukh’ from locally grown green chillies, farmers of Bharmour and Chatrari are moving to other commercially viable crops and vegetables.

However, Pankaj Chowfla, an entrepreneur from Chamba, has emerged as a ray of hope for ‘Chamba Chukh’.

He has developed an enterprise that makes ‘chukh’ in a traditional manner and is selling it to various parts of the country and now its demand is growing. Chowfla, talking to The Tribune, said now the people in the tribal areas were not very keen to grow green chillies. Farmers grew it just for their own consumption. The traditional art of making a local pickle — ‘Chamba Chukh’ — was fading. “It was this concern that drove me to start an enterprise in Chamba to save this traditional cooking form,” he added.

Chowfla said he started the enterprise for making traditional pickles green and red chilli ‘chukh’ in Chamba in 1989 after raising a loan of Rs 12 lakh from the Himachal Pradesh Financial Corporation. “For 10 years, I could not achieve break even. However, slowly the business picked up and pickles made here were so much in demand that we are not able to meet the orders.Last year, the turnover of the pickles produced in the valley was Rs 1.7 crore,” he said.

Chowfla said ‘chukh’ was made differently from those made in other parts of the country. The basic composition of ‘chukh’ was locally grown green chillies, local spices, lemon oil and some other ingredients. “Unlike other pickles, it is prepared by cooking,” he said.

He said since the production of local variety of chillies was less, ‘guntur phool’, a variety of chilli which was identical in taste to the traditionally grown chillies in tribal areas of Chamba district, was used to make ‘chukh’.Chowfla’s enterprise, which is the only surviving venture in the small industrial area of Chamba located on the edges of town, has also developed other varieties of ‘chukh’.