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'Magical' Blue Flower Changing Farmers' Fortunes in India

The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
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'Magical' Blue Flower Changing Farmers' Fortunes in India

The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  

“Until a few years ago, the butterfly pea flower was just another climbing plant in my village,” said Nilam Brahma who lives in Anthaigwlao, a village in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

Butterfly pea, also known as aparajita in India, grows as a vine and has a striking blue flower.

Around two years ago, Brahma heard that local women were making money selling the flowers, which can be made into tea, or a blue dye, according to BBC.

She decided to join them.

“The results surprised even me. The first time I earned $50 from selling dried flowers, I felt a shock. It made me believe I could control my own future,” she said.

The experiment led to a small business.

“I applied for a small loan and invested in solar dryers. The machines helped me dry flowers faster, preserve their color, and meet the quality standards demanded by buyers,” Brahma added.

Thailand and Indonesia have been the leading growers and consumers of butterfly pea flowers. But there's growing global demand for the flower, which is attracting entrepreneurs in India.

“The global demand for natural colorants is exploding,” explained Varshika Reddy, the founder of THS Impex, which exports natural dyes and additives.

Behind that demand is consumer appetite for natural ingredients and tighter controls in the US and Europe on synthetic food dyes.

In 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved butterfly pea flower as a food additive.

However, in 2022 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) raised safety concerns about using the flower.

Both the EU and the UK classify butterfly pea flower as a "novel" food, meaning it still needs approval for widespread use.

Nevertheless, Indian entrepreneurs still see potential and want to develop India's market.

“The crop is still seen as a backyard ornamental or medicinal plant rather than a commercial commodity,” said Reddy. “There is no structured market awareness, no government classification, and no standard pricing mechanism, making farmers uncertain about returns.”

She is working with farmers to raise production standards.

“We work with a dedicated cluster of farmers and their families in Uttar Pradesh, including a significant number of women farmers. We have established formal contracts... we provide comprehensive agronomy support, including guidance on best farming practices, irrigation management, and crop-specific techniques,” Reddy said.

Others in India have spotted the commercial opportunity.

“When you infuse the flower in hot water, it turns blue, and when you squeeze lemon into it, it turns purple. That felt magical,” said Nitesh Singh, who is based just outside Delhi.

Like Reddy, he thought that the flower had much more potential in India.

“It was here for thousands of years, but nobody knew it could become clean, healthy food,” Singh added.

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Varieties

Fontainebleau: French Forest of Kings, Painters and Hikers

A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Fontainebleau: French Forest of Kings, Painters and Hikers

A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)

A massive wildfire near Paris has torched swathes of a forest that has lured admirers for centuries, from royal hunting parties to impressionist painters, rock climbers and nature lovers.

Fontainebleau is no stranger to fire but this inferno -- fanned by strong winds and heatwave conditions -- is among the worst in decades, destroying nearly five percent of the 25,000-hectare (61,800 acre) forest.

- Prehistory and royalty -

Fontainebleau attracts between 15 and 18 million visitors a year -- nearly twice as many as the Louvre museum in Paris.

Most travel from the French capital 60 kilometers (40 miles) away but 30 percent come from outside France.

Rock art dating back to prehistoric times has been discovered in its caves.

Fontainebleau became a royal estate around the year 1000 under Robert II "the Pious" of France. Later, a grand palace was built to host hunting parties.

The hunting paths are still used today by firefighters to access the forest, said Sophie David, an archaeologist who heads the environment and visitor services department at the state-run National Forestry Office.

- Blank canvas -

Around 200 years ago, swathes of the forest had been cleared for agriculture, reducing it to roughly one-third of its current size.

"In the 19th century, trees were planted to fill in the gaps. Pines were chosen, trees with shallow roots" capable of growing in Fontainebleau's sandy soil, said David.

The character of this new, more open forest was captured by the painters of the Barbizon Impressionist school.

The invention of the paint tube, and rise of leisure travel among France's growing bourgeoisie, helped make Fontainebleau attractive for walkers and artists.

"The railway arrived in 1849 and the world's first signposted (hiking) trails were created" in Fontainebleau shortly after, said David.

Rosa Bonheur, a renowned French artist of this era, painted her iconic "Fairy Pond" in Fontainebleau.

- Nature hotspot -

The forest is home to oak and beech woods as well as coniferous forests, open heathland, fossil dunes, ponds and wetlands.

Thirty million years ago, the forest was an ocean. As the sea receded, it left behind sand which, over millennia, formed the sandstone blocks that now attract rock climbers.

"What makes the Fontainebleau massif unique is the diversity of its landscapes and the richness of its biodiversity," said David.

It hosts more than 6,500 known animal species -- hares and deer to birds like warblers and tawny owls and rare insects, such as the stag beetle.

UNESCO designated Fontainebleau a "biosphere reserve" in 1998.

Around 1,000 hectares are designated strict nature reserves, with no human intervention. One of those reserves has been among the hardest hit by the fire.

- Old foe -

Fire was first recorded in Fontainebleau in the 13th century.

David said detailed records had been kept since 1863 and the current blaze -- which has burned some 1,000 hectares already -- was among the largest in the history books.

In the early 20th century, surveillance towers were erected to address the problem, helping reduce the area burned.

More recently, six 10,000-litre (2,650-gallon) water tanks have been installed in the forest to enable a more rapid response to fires.

Around 30 fires break out each year, most often caused by cigarette butts or unauthorized campfires.

For the past two years, the fire service has been testing an AI surveillance system which can detect smoke and quickly locate the source to notify the fire department.

Varieties

In a Sweet Discovery, Astronomers Find Sugar Lurking in the Space Between Stars

A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
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In a Sweet Discovery, Astronomers Find Sugar Lurking in the Space Between Stars

A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)

The space between stars just got a little sweeter.

Astronomers have detected a type of sugar in space that's also found in raspberries and self-tanners. The sugar, called erythrulose, lurks in what's called the interstellar medium: thin clouds of gas and dust littered between stars.

Sugar does more than sweeten tea and powder doughnuts. Different varieties fuel our cells and even make up DNA. Scientists are itching to know how sugars form because they're a key ingredient for life as we know it.

Using two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain, researchers collected data from a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. They identified the sugar in gas form by comparing telescope signals to samples in the lab. It's the latest kind of sugar detected in space — in a region crossed by NASA's twin Voyager, the farthest spacecraft to ever travel from Earth.

The results were published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Scientists have found interesting chemistry in our galaxy, including building blocks for genetic material and parts of the cell. They spotted a cousin to table sugar near the center of the Milky Way about 25 years ago, and black grains from asteroid Bennu retrieved by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft yielded other sugars, including a key DNA ingredient.

The latest sugar isn’t essential for life, but can easily convert to a form that’s thought to be crucial to kick-starting life on Earth. And it’s one of the most complex sugars spotted so far, said astrophysicist Erika Hamden with the University of Arizona.

It's “a pristine example of the stuff that’s just floating out in the galaxy,” said Hamden, who had no role in the new research.

Researchers want to look for more sugars in space and learn about how they convert to different forms.

Finding them in one spot means they're likely also hiding in distant corners of the galaxy along with other important bits, said study author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrobiology in Spain.

“The key ingredients for the origin of life could be present in other regions across the galaxy, opening the possibility for life to develop elsewhere in the universe,” Jiménez-Serra said.

Varieties

Two Romanian Mountain Climbers Found Dead in Italian Alps

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
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Two Romanian Mountain Climbers Found Dead in Italian Alps

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news

The bodies of two Romanian climbers missing since last week were found Monday in the Gran Paradiso massif in the Italian Alps, authorities told AFP.

The two Romanian nationals whose ages have not been disclosed had not made contact since leaving a mountain refuge on July 9, according to authorities in the Aosta Valley, a northern region bordering Switzerland and France.

After several days of helicopter searches, their bodies were found Monday morning at the bottom of a crevasse about 20 metres deep, regional authorities said.

Gran Paradiso rises to 4,061 metres within Italy's oldest national park.

Mountain accidents are common in Italy: in 2025, they caused 528 deaths, an increase of 13 percent compared with the 466 fatalities recorded in 2024, according to the Italian National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS).