We, First M.Sc. Biochemistry students
are extremely grateful for this opportunity to interact and understand the way
of tribal life in Wayanad. We left to Kannur on 27th morning at 6.30
am from Mangalore central railway station along with our faculty member
Dr. Swarnalatha B.N. We reached Kannur around 10 am approximately and then we
continued our journey towards Mananthawady in a KSRTC bus. We arrived at
Wayanad Social service Society by 1 pm . Lunch was served and then we started
our preparations to guide the tribal communities about Hygiene, Alcohol abuse,
Importance of higher education and few other topics. We divided ourselves into
three groups and every group was given the responsibility to explain the
different topics using either posters or pictures. Everyone of us were so enthusiastic
to meet the tribal communities that next day morning we woke up by 5am and got
ready by 7 am.
Director of W.S.S.S gave us a brief idea
about their organisation and then information about do’s and don’ts for when we
are with the tribal people. Mr. Jain Augustine accompanied us from W.S.S.S as
our guide, we went in a bus and then walked through scenic beauty of paddy
fields where we saw a small water stream carrying fishes away, a lady washing
clothes few cattle drinking water; it
was such a pleasure to see mother nature at her best. We soon reached first
tribal colony where one of the elderly person gave us a sneak peak into their
history about how they fought alongside other Adivasi tribes under the rule of
Pazhassi raja against British invasion into Wayanad and that they lost the
battle against developed weapons. It was very sad to hear about how much
recent floods and land slides have affected their livelihood, death of more
than 300 people living in that colony and so on; so they have been traveling to Coorg for employment and they were paid with alcohol as a compensation, when
alcohol abuse caused the death of few estate workers there Karnataka police
have bought in regulations that they can work in estates and farms only if they
register in prior at the police station. Their primary job is fishing as they
live by the sides of water streams, it was surprising to see them use
indigenous ways and hand-made products for fishing even today. Even though they
have been staying there from generations now they don’t have the ownership over
the land, The court has allotted 3 cents land which is too less for farming
and place for house. Most of the kids here get education till high school in
the close-by government school and then majority of them stop studying, kids
here have represented in state level athletics competition, they wish they had
a coach who could guide them into how to go ahead and consider sports for
future. They have one graduate man from the whole tribe and when asked about if
they know the importance of higher education their response was that they just
want one among them to be able to talk to any person or officials on their
behalf. This is when we explained them about how the higher education can get
not only a representative but bring about difference in society. Instead of
making it a class to explain topics, we tried to learn about their history,
culture and when they bought up their
issues in between we made sure to address those issues and helped them have a
better knowledge about how to overcome them. There are three tribal communities
in Wayanad and they are Paniya, Kurcha and Kurumba. Paniya stayed closer to
villages, Kurcha amidst the forest and Kurumba lived deep inside the forests and
also they have a hill named KURUMBALAKOTTA as that tribe was settled there for
long time. They have their own temple and have a week long festivities once a
year. Chapu, crabs and fishes were their main source of food. They performed
the tribal dance for music from their own musical instruments. After their
performance we moved ahead towards next tribal colony. This journey was much
more adventurous in its own way as we had to cross the water body on a really
old wooden hanging bridge, after walking for nearly about two kilometres we
reached another colony.
This was also the same Paniya tribe
whereas their beliefs and the way they live totally differed from the previous
tribe we met. This tribe had a head and he was called MUPAN. As they were aware
about our arrival all the kids in this tribe had stayed back and were waiting
eagerly to welcome us. As we arrived here by noon, our lunch was planned here.
Some of us helped them cook while others were
trying to make kids understand about the hygiene, sanitation and
importance of higher education. Here we got us the opportunity to enter their
place of worship, they had three stones outside the temple which they
worshipped and these were the places where the previous MUPAN’s were buried;
they believe that their soul is in the stone . Only the head of the tribes are
buried near the temple and rest of them beyond the river. We gathered group of
adults and informed them about the ill
effects of early and child marriages. Later KAPPA was served with fish and pickle
which was a scrumptious meal. This tribe also performed their traditional dance
which was somewhat similar to the previous tribe; later they made us learn and
perform dance which was very sweet of them to do. By then it was late in the
evening around 6pm and we went back to W.S.S.S centre. We cleaned up ourselves
, had dinner and went to sleep after a small feedback session about the day
with our faculty incharge.
Next morning we were supposed to have a
orientation about the programmes of W.S.S.S but as the convener was not available we had
to skip that and travel towards Boys town to visit Botanical garden and
Medicinal plants conservation park which was established uder the name of
project in 1953. The professor there gave his insights about different herbs,
preservation and conservation of endangered traditional wild variety of plants. They were working on two major projects; Extensive survey of medicinal
plants in Wayanad region, Documentation of medicinal plants used by indigenous
people with the help of national and international fundings. Lunch was served
amidst the greenery. Later in the day we got to meet Father Babu, who was well
versed in pharmacological effects of locally available plants. He took us
through their backyard to display all the medicinal plants and to enrich our
knowledge about their applications. Leeches were found on some of us and Fr.
Babu then enlightened about the Leech therapy and how beneficial it can be. At
the end we returned to Mananthawady with much better knowledge about medicinal
plants.
Fourth day we left to puthusseri and
Madam Shiny accompanied us to the next tribal community, We got to meet Kurcha
tribe whose primary profession was hunting .
in this community unlike paniya community families were dispersed
through out the forest due to their own reasons. The families that lived at
beginning of forest had proper houses and those that lived deep inside forest
still lived in mud houses and huts. While we were walking we got to notice many
different types of birds and spiders. The family that lived deep inside the
forest displayed the weapons they use for hunting and even taught us how to use
bow and arrow. They fed us with sugar cane from their garden. We couldn’t help
but notice different kinds of chillies around the house which not only differed
in color but also the extent of fieriness in their taste. We savoured the taste
of the communal dish KACHILL with chilly paste as the side. Tribal woman
entertained us with her singing skills by singing a song in native tongue. When
asked about medicinal facilities they said that they generally use ethnic
medicine and in case of severe illness they have to travel far to get them to
hospital and there was a case where the patient expired even before the ambulance
reached. We explained them about hygiene and safety measures to follow at the
time of sickness.
We successfully
finished the scheduled program by Sunday and as we were free till 4 pm we
visited India’s second largest earthen dam BANASURASAGAR DAM and later returned to Kannur and travelled
back to mangalore in a train.
