There have been several news items regarding the beauty of handicrafts made up of dried grass which becomes yellow and golden in color. Following are some excerpts on this from a report in New Kerala.

Dried grass, which becomes yellow and golden in colour, has been innovatively used by a group of Oriya women to craft attractive items of daily use.

The grass is made of Khus Khus stem. It is sturdy and can be bent to any shape to be turned into items of household use. It can also be crafted into decorative items. This has been the occupation of a group of Orissa’s Jajanga Village of Kendrapara District for the last ten years.

Nearly 80 per cent of the women in Jajanga village create various decorative items like flowers, baskets, wall-hangings, mats and pen-stands. All that each of them earn is about Rs.500 to 1,500 per month. …

The Golden grass items were introduced to Jajanga by Mahila Samiti committee headed by Swarna Prabha Swain. Today, it exists as a cottage industry here. …

At times they take five days to make an item. They take pride in their produce, and hope that the day is not far when their handicrafts are sold all over the country, or at least in all part of Orissa.

Perhaps the Orissa government can push this village to become an arts-n-crafts village like Raghurajpur and include it in a tourist circuit. In general, Orissa government should identify a few more craftsman villages where 80% of the houses are involved in some handicraft or some art-n-craft and develop amenities there  and include them in tourist circuits. Besides the above mentioned village other candidates could be a village or villages in Baragarh district that weave Sambalpuri sarees and villages near Pipli. My knowledge of such villages is rudimentary, but we will keep our eyes open and report about them here.