An Indian farmer named Ganapathi Bhat has creatively turned a used motorbike into a tree elevator, seen here on June 12.

Bhat a resident of Komale, in Sajipamooda village, took nearly six years to invent this unique machine. Bhat has installed a gearbox to a 2 stroke engine and also shock absorbers, disk brake and safety lock system.

Bhat has spent around 75,000 rupees to create this machine. He has already built four and has approached some mechanical engineers to help him produce more machines,

Ganapathi Bhat, son of Narayan Bhat, a resident of Komale in Sajipamooda village in Bantwal taluk took nearly six years to invent this unique machine. Bhat has installed a gearbox to a 2 stroke engine and also shock absorbers, disk brake and safety lock system. Using this machine, one can climb arecanut tree easily, irrespective of its height. Due to this new invention,Bhat has made harvesting arecanut and applying pesticide to the tree very simple. It has emerged as a solution to the labour problem. The machine is of unisex use due to its simple operating system.

In order to reap harvest from around 90 arecanut trees, one litre of petrol is enough for this tree motorbike. The machine takes only 30 seconds to climb a 100 feet long arecanut tree. The person using this machine must wear the seat belt as aprecautionary measure. Though the tyre of the machine gets eroded, there is no any harm to the tree. Bhat says it is better to wear pant or shorts instead of wearing saree or lungi as they may get caught in the wheels of the machine. This machine consumes fuel only when it goes up and while coming down, the engine of the machine can be turned off. The machine has been designed to climb the arecanut tree only and it cannot be used on coconut trees as of now. But Bhat says he is seriouslycontemplating designing machines to harvest coconut also.

Bhat has spent around Rs 75,000 to create this machine. He had approached some mechanical engineers to help him produce more such machines and has already built four. The shortage of skilled labour to harvest arecanut forced Bhat to