Thiruvanthapuram Man Who Only Eats Raw Fruits Turns Barren Land Into Fruit Forest

Eldho Pachilakkadan, an ex-architect hailing from Thiruvanthapuram, has been a ‘fruitarian’ since a decade. Which means 90% of his diet consists of only raw fruits. His wife, son and daughter follow suit. According to an earlier report by The Deccan Chronicle, Eldho believes that “cooked food is not real food”.

Eldho’s love for fruits has led him to transform a 10-acres barren land into a fruit farm, reports The New Indian Express.

It was in the year 2009 that Eldho bought the 10-acre land in Swargam Medu, a hilltop at Idukki near Munnar, along with a friend. The land is now a “fertile fruit forest” filled with flowers, shrubs, and fruit trees. The forest is home to a variety of fruits like mangoes, blackberries, apples, etc.

“When you watch nature closely, you begin to notice a pattern. I started noticing how important food is – what every creature eats, and how that affects its food chain, and how in turn, this affects other creatures around it,” said Eldho.

He added, “This nature was made to keep all of us healthy – it has food, it has poison, it has diseases, but it also has medicine. It is a deviation from this flow that makes all of us unhealthy.”

Eldho also revealed that after he turned a ‘fruitarian’, he saw a significant change in his body and overall health. From being a 90-kg, obese, and diabetic man, Eldho turned into a 63-kg, healthy, and fit man.

Eldho and his team have also started building “self-sustainable farms” around houses near Ernakulam and Kottayam.

“The idea is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that will supply enough food in the form of fruits and vegetables for a family to survive through the year, without them having to indulge in daily farm labour,” he said.

Eldho’s lifestyle and food choices are entirely his own. However, the fact that he used a barren land and transformed it into a colourful forest not just caters to his needs, but that of the environment as well. And kudos for that!

Cover source: I, II.