A few examples of technologies adopted traditionally by South Indian ST people. (May be read as an extension of para 2.)
The Cholanaikkan
Found in virgin, deep evergreen forests on the south-west escarpment of the Nilgiri horst, the Cholanaikkan have been described as a "primitive" tribe. The area is virtually a rain trap, getting the benefit of the South-west and the Northeast monsoons, the average annual rainfall being between 3000 and 4000 mm and maximum temperature about 30oC. They share the habitat with a rich variety of wild life. Tigers, leopards, jungle cats, elephants, bears, wild pigs, deer and antelopes, Nilgiri Tahr, wild dogs, jackals, etc., are common. Both the species of langurs and the lion-tailed macaques are found. King cobras and pythons are the notable snakes. Several species of frogs, butterflies, insects, leeches, etc., abound. The birds are well represented with the Great Indian Hornbill, etc. The streams team with various types of fishes.
The most romanticised feature of Cholanaikkan life style is that they prefer to stay in the natural caves along the escarpment of the mountains. This was a wise choice, because in the moist heavy rainfall regime, structural homes would have been difficult to maintain. Moreover, the Cholanaikkans prefer to move from site to site in the course of their search for livelihood, and such houses would be only an embarrassment. When Government routinely provided houses for them, they chose to stay in them only when they happened to be nearby in the course of their peregrinations, and neglected them until they fell into disrepair. Thus, the adoption of caves as dwelling was not a romantic preference. It was a choice of technology, by which the Cholanaikkan optimised their activity schedules, with the endowments that nature provided to them. They chose caves to live in carefully; they are spacious, so that several family units all belonging to a clan can stay in them in separate corners spacious enough to accommodate them. There is usually a spring within the cave to provide them with pure water supply "on tap". The approach to the mouth of the cave is steep and blocked with boulders so that wild animals cannot easily attack. Selecting a cave and staying in it are very well thought out optimal technical solutions.
They are totally dependent on the forests. They collect roots, tubers, fruits and seeds for their direct consumption as well as exchange if in surplus. Their availability depends on the seasons, the maximum being in September. They have simple systems of sun-drying the surplus and storing it in baskets that they weave with the grass, reeds and bamboos plentifully available in the locality. They gather wild mangoes, jackfruits, and other edible fruits during the summer months. Honey is an important item - they recognise a sort of "property" right over hives vesting on the one who first discovers each of them. He makes a mark at the foot of the tree, and custom decrees that none else may collect honey from that hive without his permission. They are skilled in the various activities necessary to collect honey from the hives of the ferocious Apis indica, which will attack all intruders. Judicious use of fire torches, and careful selection of time of day when the hives may be approached, constitutes items of knowledge handed down the generations. They refrain from collecting honey during the periods when the hives swarm, so that bee population may increase.
They catch fish by using vegetable poisons, by diverting water flows so that fish swarm, or by fishing with rod and line. Monkeys are chased into traps. Some deer fall into the old pits dug by the Forest Department for catching elephants and subsequently abandoned; the Cholanaikkans grab this opportunity for killing and sharing the meat. But they run the risk of being attacked and eaten by tigers, or being mauled by bears. They avoid the elephants, freezing into immobility when confronted with them.
When the British aggrandized the forests, they auctioned the right to collect and trade in "minor forest produce" of the area to contractors. The Cholanaikkans had the monopoly of skills required for the collection of these items. The contractors paid "advances" in the form of foodgrains, and other requirements, and made them collect honey, beeswax, dammer (resins), wild cardamom and pepper, turmeric, curcuma, nellikka (Emblica officianales), etc. In the past, they had collected these items for their own consumption, but with the induction of a ‘trade' demand for them, they altered their activity schedules and migratory patterns so that they could increase the quantity of these materials they could collect. They never bothered to develop skills in agriculture - not even, ‘kitchen gardening'.
Nature was generous and provided all the vegetable food materials in such abundance that they needed only to collect them. They developed cooking techniques, and a system of food sharing so that each member was kept fed adequately. They had a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods, and were healthy and strong.
