Kadars:
The recent death of a Kadar tribesman in Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve in an elephant attack has left the indigenous community and conservationists in shock as Kadars are known to co-exist with wild elephants for ages.
- They are a small indigenous tribal community in South India.
- They reside along the hilly border between Cochin in Kerala and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
- They are traditional forest dwellers who depend on forest produce for sustenance. They do not practice agriculture, building shelters thatched with leaves and shifting locations as their employment requires.
- They prefer to eat rice obtained in a trade or as wages rather than to subsist on food of their own gathering.
- They have long served as specialized collectors of honey, wax, sago, cardamom, ginger, and umbrella sticks for trade with merchants from the plains.
- They have a symbiotic relationship with nature, and they believe in the coexistence of Kadar and Kaadu (forest).
- The Kadar have traditional protocols to ensure the sustainable use of forest resources.
