WAYANAD has the highest concentration of Kerala's tribal population, which forms 17.1 per cent of the total population of the State. According to K. Narayanan, environmental activist and president of Solidarity, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working among the tribal people, the crisis in the farm sector, which is encouraging more and more farmers to commit suicide, has also had a serious impact on the tribal people. Earlier, they used to find work as labourers in farms and homestead gardens. Now wages have come down from Rs.100 to Rs.60; in Mananthavadi town, every morning one can see a number of them loitering in search of work. Small farmers cannot afford to employ them any longer.
According to Narayanan, the third group that has been seriously affected is workers in the tea and coffee plantations. In Mananthavadi, nearly 5,660 families of plantation labourers are struggling to survive as the company that they work for has been under lockout for nearly two months. "Three years ago, cattle-rearing too was an important source of revenue. It is a reflection of the poverty and the water scarcity that have engulfed the farming households that cows that yeilded 10 litres of milk a day and fetched Rs.10,000 earlier are now sold for a mere Rs.1,500," Narayanan said.
He said that the ecological changes brought in by the new cropping patterns and the extensive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers have affected the nutritional status of the tribal people. "A number of species of fish and edible creatures like crabs, which formed a source of food for the tribal people, are no longer available. A recent study showed that 17 types of herbs and many wild species of freely available vegetables consumed by the tribal people have been wiped out. The study has indicated that the principal cause of poverty and malnutrition-induced diseases among the tribal population could be the depletion of biodiversity in the region.
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