SONIA GANDHI COMES TO AID OF CHOLANAICKER TRIBE

SONIA GANDHI COMES TO AID OF CHOLANAICKER TRIBE

Finally, Sonia Gandhi has come to the aid of the fast-disappearing Cholanaickers of Kerala. The National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi has nam­ed Cholanaickers, whose population has now shru­nken to just about 200, as one of the 17 Near-Extinct Particularly Vulnerable Tr­ib­al Groups in the country. The near-extinct groups have been picked from a group of 87 PVTGs.

The NAC has proposed a series of radical measures, including a rights-based ap­proach, social audit and spe­c­ial census to revive these tribes. Cholanaickers are found only in two pockets in Nilambur – Mannala and Manjeri within a violated patch of the buffer zone of Silent Valley.

Only 56 families, or 220 Cholanai­ckers, remain. The tribe has been vanishing fast. In 1991, there were nearly 600 Cho­la­na­ick­ers. In 2001, it had dwindled to 376. They live inside rock caves, consume only tubers and honey, and are exceptionally skilled at gathering honey and other forest produce. They speak a musical language that has no connection to any South Indian languages.

Deforestation has now pushed Cholanaickers into an extreme form of poverty. “Rubber cultivation has de­prived them of their traditional food like tubers,” said Dr Seema Bhaskar who had worked with Cholanaickers. They still follow barter system. “They exchange pots of honey for negligible qua­n­tities of grain, green gram, salt and oil,” Dr Bhaskar said. “Rubber monocropping has shut out even this source of income,” she said.

Tribes are still oblivious of  Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, though it was enacted in 1996. For­est Rights Act has not wo­rked for the tribals because it often clashes with other forest and environment laws.

Prof. John Kurakar