After Independence, publicity mongers romanticised their cave-dwelling life style. TV camera crews, documentary film producers, journalists, government officials, and other riff raff broke into their forest habitats. Soon, there were cases of venereal diseases, which had to be treated promptly by inducting teams of doctors from Calicut Medical College. Now, they withdraw from the intruders, and the ‘glamour' has worn off, leaving them back again to their simple life styles.
The system of minor forest contractors was abolished. Instead, a Girijan Service Co-operative Society was formed; all the Cholanaikkans are members. The Society is run by bureaucrats; according to Bhanu 1980 (The Cholanaikkans of Kerala, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta, p 98, etc.), this has reduced the extent of the exploitation that they were subjected to. The Society's office serves as a nodal meeting point and information exchange centre, as most of them visit it once a week during the "season".
Knowledge systems:: trapping small animals including monkeys; knowledge of where to look for and how to gather tubers, fruits, protinaceous plants, etc., in the forest; fishing; food-sharing. Most evolved skill is for collection of honey. They distinguish at least four types. Methodologies differ according to the type of bee, and location of hives. Nowadays, apart from their own consumption, honey forms an item of trade for them. Resin from Cullenia excelsa is another item the expertise for collection of which they have acquired after it became an item of trade. They know how to wound and burn the bark just sufficiently to maximize the exudation of resin, and its optimum collection schedule.
Kanikkar, Kadar & Kurichiya use of bows and arrows:
The bow and arrow is believed to be the invention of Negrito people, as, e.g., in the Andaman Islands. The simple bow, usually made of a stave of bamboo, bent and hardened over fire, is used by Kerala tribes. The Kanikkar, Kadar, & Kurichiya have developed high degrees of sophistication in the making of the bow, and several types of arrows, specialised for different targets. Chenchu of Andhra Pradesh have a technology of collection of honey, and the sophistication of their bows with variety of arrows for various purposes finds an echo in several tribes of Kerala, e.g., the Kanikkar of the southern districts, and the Kadar of Parambikulam. The Kadar have even more expert technologies for collection of honey from hives of the ferocious rock bees found along the vertical rock faces, and on the branches of the highest trees. All these tribes have highly sophisticated knowledge of the therapeutic values of the plant species of their habitat, including for fertility control.
The Kurumba of Attappady
Living in the evergreen forests on the banks of the Bhavani at the northwest corner of the Attappady Valley, the Kurumba of Attappady were semi-nomadic in the past, but have settled down in well-marked hamlets over the past century. When a settlement gets too populous, say, over 50 families, some of the younger families break off and establish a new hamlet a little distance away. According to the sanctioned Forest Working Plan, each family had been allotted 5 acres (2 hectares) of forestland for cultivation, with an additional two hectares for the headman of each hamlet. Most of the area is thick evergreen forest, well watered by the Bhavani, and receiving more than 3000 mm of rain annually. It is fairly well stocked with wild life, including elephants, gaur, deer, monkeys, snakes, etc.
It adjoins the famous Silent Valley, with which it shares the eco-system. Among the valuable tree species are rosewood, hardwoods like Messua ferra, Cullenia exillarata, Artocarpus, etc.
Knowledge Systems
I learnt an invaluable lesson about the "value" of things from them. About three decades back, I was camping a night in one of their hamlets, when they lit a fire to keep me warm. The fuel used was smoky; my hosts apologised, saying that they could get only some rosewood logs for fuel, and that species produced very sooty fire! Rosewood, to them, at that time, was only a poor fuel-wood species, with very little alternative use. They preferred mango and jack for fruit, hardwoods for small timber, bamboo for house construction, and albizzia for fuel. It was only because of the "fancy" of non-Kurumba people that the Forest Department seemed to be so concerned over rosewood, which may fetch thousands of rupees if sold in the world markets, but that is because it is subjected to a technology that the Kurumba found no use for.
They had developed a relaxed relationship with their forest ecology over the ages. They had plenty of honey, which they knew to collect in a variety of ways, depending on the species of bees and the location of the hives. They could recall the names and uses of more than 150 plant species, many of them as medicines and herbs. Their spirit of enquiry was not merely traditional. Eupatorium had been introduced into Kerala after World War II, and spread throughout. The Kurumba found that they could make a poultice of the leaves that could cure some forms of sores on the skin.
