Lacquer Industry in India

See how tiny insects are farmed to create art and handicraft items, and fuel an entire industry!

India is known as a land of agriculture and even though we now feature malls and air-conditioned office complexes aplenty, we still remain rooted to the soil. And while farmers grow crops elsewhere, in Jharkhand they grow something quite different – insects!

In the Indian state of Jharkhand, cultivators rear Lac insects or Kerria lacca - the tiny beetles that produce a resin which we turn into lacquer.

Research and Development on the cultivation and processing of lac is done at the Indian Lac Research Institute in Ranchi. Wildfilmsindia sent a team down to Jharkhand to understand how lacquer is still being produced in India, and the support that the industry is receiving from the central and state governments, in order to keep this ancient craft and industry alive.

A tiny red insect produces shellac. Swarms of these insects feed on certain trees that grow mainly in India and Thailand and are known as lac trees. One of their favourites is the Indian Flame-of-the-Forest tree, also known as dhak, palash or tesu. The flowers of this tree are also, incidentally, used to make the traditional orange gulaal used during the Holi festival. Kusum and Ber trees are also favourite hosts of the lacca beetle of which the male is a reddish-black and the female is a yellowish-brown…

Insecticide is sprayed on to the host trees in order to prevent ants and other insect predators from eating up the lacca beetles.

Horticulture crops and vegetables are often mixed into the land use, to create a Lac integrated farming system, among the Flame-of-the-forest tree plantations.

Workers collect the sticks on which the lacquer resin is affixed from the tree’s branches, as part of the refining process. They cut hordes of these twigs or sticks and tie them up in bundles. Then each stick is scratched vigorously by workers to scrape off the secretion which is the resin secreted by the insects.
This process can also be done mechanically in a lac scraper - crusher, followed by further mechanical action in a grader and lac winnower.

Since the resulting ground material is quite impure, containing resin, insect remains, twigs and leaves. The mixture is forced through the lac grader to sort out the larger impurities. It is then washed and poured into another machine and water is poured to finely cleanse it. Water is also admixed to create crude or pure lac dyes which tend to be deep red coloured liquids.

The mixture is spread out on the floor to dry.

This lac is finally used in a number of high-end handicraft and manufactured products in the manufacturing of lac dye, lacquer bangles, paints, glass ceramics and jewelry. Even vinyl records used to be treated with lac. Other products include hydrolysed lac sealing wax, abrasive wheels, lac dye used in metal foil, bangles, lac colour for paintings, storage boxes for jewellery and other fashionable high value items, and nail polish. Lac is used to polish fruit and keep it fresh and shiny for longer with the help of a lac based fruit coating. Lac is even used to make certain indigenous medicines!

Lacquer is an ancient art and industry – it may not survive for long in modern times, given the complexity of cultivating the lacca beetles, harvesting their resin and making products that fewer and fewer people seem to know about and may not be willing to pay for. Nonetheless, it is important for us to understand how this unique product is created and how much cultural and historical importance lacquer was given in ancient India and China.