Soliga Tribe:
A recent study showed that fortress conservation approach has led to uprooting, ongoing distress and despondency worldwide, and offers the Soligas in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRTWS) as a prime conservation exemplar.
- The term “Soliga” literally translates to “children of bamboo”, which reflects the tribe’s relationship with nature and their belief that they too have emerged from it.
- They are a group of indigenous, forest-dwelling people found mostly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
- They reside in the peripheral forest areas near Biligiri Rangana Hills and Male Mahadeshwara Hills.
- Soligas was the first tribal community living inside a tiger reserve and getting their forest rights recognised by a court in a judgment in 2011.
- The Dravidian language sholaga is spoken by the Soliga. They also speak Kannada and Tamil.
- The Soligas live in single-room huts, built of bamboo and mud.
- They believe in coexisting with the environment and have indigenous ways of using nature to make unique utility products, such as the ‘jottai’, which is a cup made out of leaves.
- Along with adhering to Hindu customs, the Soliga people practice naturism and animism.
- The traditional economy of the Soliga is mostly based on shifting cultivation and collection of minor forest produce.
