A journey to Sustainable Tribal Development in Western Ghats (Empowering Tribal Economy. A gateway to Paliyar Tribal Economy in South Tamilnadu) Paliyars, the aboriginal tribes, live in the clad of western ghat falling in the districts of Madurai, Theni, Dindugul,Tiruppur, Virudhunagar,and Tirunelveli. Paliyars are scattered and unorganised group who are all used to live as a smaller group in the foothills. Poolavadi Puliyampatti in Palani hills of western Ghats is considered to be the origin of this tribe . Paliyans live as isolated groups. They used to live in rock crevices and caves. Palliays in Virudhunagar and Madurai districts are mostly settled in the hilly areas of sathuragiri-, Shenbaga Thoppu, Thanipparai, Atthikoil, Ayyanarkoil, vinobanagar,in Pilavakkal Dam, Vallimmanagar, , etc. They are short in stature and black in colour, with curly hair, thick lips, broad and flat nose. . Tamil is their mother language. . In the ancient time, the ancestors of paliyars were lived with nature and settled as a small group in the interior forest. In olden days, these people lived in small cave like structures called Kalazhais and later on constructed a small hut in the forest. They are now settled in the footsteps of the hills and used to venture into the forest on several occasion for collection of minor forest produce and medicinal plants and herbs. Their life is very simple and well contended and they do not have saving habits. Paliars are in chase till time memory as the outsider started to parade on their nature. They were once hunter and nomad. Only in early 50s, they exposed their life to the outside world and also started to wear limited clothes. Their dress code is very simple. They are in search of their lost glory and their lost cultural identity. Ealier Paliyars were , nomadic and later period of paliyars are semi nomadic and the present Paliars are settlers . Nomadic paliyars don't built houses; they live temporarily in rock caves called 'pudai'. Semi nomadic paliyars build temporary houses and confine themselves to small territories. Most of their huts are dark with no window or any other opening to admit air. Settled Paliyars are more or less urbanized Paliyars in Sathuragiri Hill Palliays in Virudhunagar and Madurai districts are mostly settled in the hilly areas of sathuragiri-, Shenbaga Thoppu, Thanipparai, Atthikoil, Ayyanarkoil, vinobanagar,in Pilavakkal Dam, Vallimmanagar, palavakkal dam, etc. Sathuragiri is known for legendry and religion. It is an isolated hill situated at the eastern side of Western Ghats. This hill range is an off - shoot that is connected to the Western Ghats through the Varushanadu hill ranges in the north. It is known for Siddhas date back to 5AD. It was also referred in Ramayana. It was belived that while Hanuman (Monkey God) was carrying the Sanjeevi mountain, a portion of it was dropped containing all the rare medicinal plants 
Customs and Ritual
Paliyar is a contemporary hunting and gathering society once lived in the interior forest. Paliyars are relatively non-violent peace loving innocent tribes. They were nomad till time memory. Only in the early 50s, they started to wear limited dresses. The male was half necked and used to put the dotti in the waist and that the used one by the male was then weared by the woman as dress. The habit of wearing the saris and other modern dresses found in their changed life style only in the later period, that is after they have been exposed to the outside world and started to settle down in the foothills. The ancestors of paliyar used to eat vallikizhanku and hunt animals for food. They worship goodness Ananthavalii and vanadevadai. The tribal offers prayer to the Vanadevadai in the interior forest. They also worship god Karuppan by visiting a remote area of the forest along with the families. Still believes that these Vanadevadais protect their family. Adi amavasai is an important festival that is celebrated with more ritual and gaiety. In the early 50’s the Paliyans were allowed to perform pooja and today this right has been taken away by the caste Hindus of the plains . Still, the community is having the habit and celebrity of venture in to the interior forest with family members and offer poojas 
| Life style
Their life style is very simple and sacrosanct . They love to live with nature. Their belongings are limited and they do not have saving habits. once they live in rocks and their life style has now been disturbed and witnessed past erosion . . Those days the marriage ceremony was very simple and they had a practice of marring the maternity uncle’s daughter. They will exchange the groom within their community settled in particular settlement. They rarely search the groom from the other paliyars living in the other parts of the places in the westernghats . The same custom is still in practice. In early days, the bride and bridegroom were allowed to start the new life by separating them from the fathers house from the day one on wards by giving gift of small pottery for cooking. The young couple had to accept and to start the new life in the forest. They used Tharanipoo and perandipoo during the marriage feast and the young woman put the Tharanippu garland as a token of love and affection and a symbol of marriage. Such a system of marriage has been eroded now once the community mingled with outsiders. But instead of giving mud pot as a marriage gift, now they are accustomed to give goat and cow as a marriage gift to the bridegroom family, Hunter becomes Gatherer: The hunters are now become gatherers. Their knowledge on medicinal plants is extraordinary and has a rich expertise about herbs .They used to collect the medicinal plants from the interior forest. Their rights on forest and their present with nature are to be relooked as they have been traditionally protecting and conserving the forest resource for sustainable use. They collect honey from the branches of towering tall trees and rock caves skillfully. Sathuragiri Paliyans resulted in the identification of 134 medicinal plants that are used by them to treat common ailments such as cold, cough, head ache, snake bites, poisonous insect bites and digestive disorders. Tribal tribulation and invasion of cash Economy It is misfortune that the Piliyar tribal are still under exploitation. The rapid depletion of their past life system, social transition, the advent of cash and commercial economy have started to batter their glory. The future of the Paliyar life is very tenacious and dangerous. Their natural economy is totally under thread. The unorganised business operation and domination of traders have put them in low profile. There is no organised system to procure the minor forest items from the tribal. Serfdom type menace has sucked their life. Some of the tribal have slander their life to the traders for many years just for Rs.500/- as their are unable to pay back the money and as a result, they used to give their collection at very minimum rate. The apathetic life structure has put them in the mid of crisis. It is also known fact that the early two censes shows that the population of Paliyar is waning out very fast,. Noble cause: Paliyar tribal are being portent and protected by few NGOs. The service of RAMCO is fabulous. RAMCO is known for community development of above race. Their initiatives on eradication of illiteracy and commitment on tribal rehabilitation are bold attempt on protecting and promoting the very base of the forgotten race in their own inhabitation. They have constructed permanent house for the Paliyars in 4 settlement areas. They have adopted the Tribal children of the above mentioned places and brought them to Rajapalayam for giving proper education to the ethnic groups. New Opening : A journey to Sustainable Tribal Development Drive on Tribal industrialisation is a new initiative attempted jointly by MSME-DI,Chennai, Govt of India and RAMCO group , Rajapalayam. It is a silent movement for revitalising the Tribal Economy in the above target regions Rekindling of tribal economic base is a stupendous task which would be done based on creation of strong linkages with nature and promotion of eco friendly community based Tribal enterprises under group initiatives The experience with Malayali tribal has given impetus to the MSME-DI to contemplate a fresh promotional strategy for gearing their trial economy. RAMCO and MSME-DI have adopted Paliyar Tribal with an objective of creating Community based multi products Micro enterprises by using the forest resources for ensuring the livelihood option of the Tribal with the message of save forest and save future. This is a sustainable and harmonious development model for total transition of eco-friendly tribal economy Attempt would be made to replicate the developmental model of Jawadhi hills with modified strategy suitable to the Paliyar community as the later is vulnerable society and. more prone to exploitation. It has been decided to create a big bio diversified herbal garden in each settlement area so as to preserves the bio diversity and to protect the rare medicinal plants from the very threat of complete extinct. The tribal are in the thresh hold of traders for converting the minor forest produce collection in to cash in a shortest period of time Such a unscrupulous parade on nature will later on pose problem to the tribal economy. Keeping this view in mind, an attempt is made to train the tribal in scientific method of collecting and plucking the forest produce. Training would be imparted to manufacture value added products under group initiatives. Long term integrated sustainable project: Green-valley project in the name of Tribal Industrialization for Inclusive growth Development - Proposal for Livelihood improvement would be prepared and implemented on phased manner. | A journey to Sustainable Tribal DevelopmentContact Details
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