At 5:30 a.m. in April, the sun shines down on the Jagdalpur-Raipur highway in Chhattisgarh. A turn near Babu Kohaka in North Bastar Kanker leads to a village road flanked by bare trees. The air is pregnant with a sweet, pungent smell.

At Badegauri village, a cream-coloured carpet of flowers engulfs the ground near the trees. This is the mahua flower windfall Devlal Teta and his family waits and prays for. They have been at work since before dawn, picking the flowers in a circle with the tree at its centre, careful not to step on any. The longest branch is the radius, and when they clear a part, it looks like the hollow an eaten pizza slice leaves on the platter.