Lords Of The Forest: Meet The Kattunayakan Tribe From The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

Kattunayakan Tribe of India | The 2022 Indian documentary film “The Elephant Whisperers,” which won the Academy Award in the best documentary short film category a year later, tells the story of a real-life couple named Bellie and Bomman who care for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu. Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the depiction of the strong bond that develops between the couple and the elephant was a moving portrayal of human-animal co-existence on-screen. But, Bellie and Bomman’s connection to wildlife is nothing new; they hail from an indigenous community that has long worshipped animals, birds, trees, hills and snakes, along with the other Hindu deities.

The Kattunayakan Of South India

The Kattunayakan are a designated scheduled tribe that lives in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. As one of the original inhabitants of the Western Ghats, they get their name from the Malayalam words kadu (forests) and nayakan (leader/chief), which connotes their position as “lords of the forest.” They speak a mixture of all Dravidian languages, and are fond of music, songs and dancing.

Numbering about 72,000 today, the Kattunayakan are spread over the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve—the trijunction of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, the Bandipur and Nagerhole tiger reserves of Karnataka, and the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala. They eke out a living by collecting and selling honey, wax and other minor forest products (MFPs), and are known for their physical strength, scaling steep cliffs and tall trees to collect honey.

While they are called Kattunayakan in Wayanad, those living in the interiors of Kerala’s Nilambur area are called Cholanaickan, while those who live in the plains of Malappuram district are called Pathinaickans.

The Lives Of The Kattunayakan People Today

Kattunayakars have historically been hunter-gatherers. However, stringent forest laws enacted in 1865 and 1878 empowered the government to make decisions on forestry, thus marking the beginning of Kattunayakars’ severance from the land they had been living on for generations. Today, the communities are under the constant surveillance of the forest departments of the three states.

The climate crisis, forest fragmentation and deforestation have also affected the availability of honey, with restrictions imposed by the state forest departments on collecting MFPS.

Additionally, forest dwellers have been facing relocation drives in order to leave the forests exclusively for wild animals. In 2023, 20,000 tribespeople in Mudumalai were facing relocation; in Wayanad, the number was around 7,000.

Most Kattunayakars have refused to shift and rejected the central government-sponsored rehabilitation package of INR 10 lakh per family. Those who accepted the offer now feel displaced and misplaced, with many travelling 30-40 km from their new location to reach the forests and engage in the only profession they know. Several others who were forced to shift have stopped gathering honey and collecting MFPs; they are now working as farmhands.

However, there are many ways to better support the community and help them flourish. According to a 2024 scientific paper titled “Regional sustainability of the Kattunayakan tribe in Kerala, India through the enhancement of agricultural, livestock, and livelihood options” by Rajeev Ramakrishnan, S Rajendrakumar and Nikhil K Kothurkar, better school infrastructure, the distribution of non-sellable land and value additions in traditional products would empower the Kattunayakan tribes living in the Wayanad district. The study also noted that cultivating crops which are unpalatable for wild animals alongside integrated agriculture, forest and livestock practices can improve their income.