Every few months, Anjuna resident Elizabeth D’mello goes nuts. Whenever the 25 coconut palms in her backyard blossom and are laden with nuts, instead of being glad, she grits her teeth and makes desperate phone calls, leaves urgent messages and generally raises hell looking for a coconut plucker.

Nutty woes: Residents of Goa complain that the shortage of coconut pluckers has raised their price. Many of them now demand for Rs 500 and one coconut for each tree that they pluck. Representation Pic