THE GOD THAT LIVES IN THE FOREST

Whether the temple sustained the forests around it or the forests welcome the temple within them has long been a raging debate. But, it is also true that there are instances where the  forests have completely degenerated or disappeared around some of these temples.

 I had the opportunity to visit the temple Sorimuthayan with the Atree team who has been working in the KMTR region for quite a  while now. The festival that attracts a crowd of whooping 5lakh  pilgrims (tourists) for almost a period of 10 days leaves  tell-tale signs of post festival debris and other effects that would  take the forests a long time to recover from. The festival has  been celebrated by the villages that were under the Singampatti  Raja for around 150 years now. What was a earlier a crowd of  5000 has now blown out into 5 lakh attendees, with more and more  villages adopting Sorimuthayan as their family God. Families camp  inside the forests clearing the forest cover to put temporary  tents for a period of 10 days bringing along with them food  packets wrapped inside plastic bags, and a variety of other  items that gets discarded inside the forest.

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE FARMING PRACTICES, AND MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT, IN KANI TRIBES OF MUNDANTHURAI PLATEAU

 I spent a good amount of a week weaving in and out  of Kani Settlements in Mundathurai Tiger Reserve  in Tamil Nadu as part of field work and project  execution of the 15 day course on Conservation  Science conducted by Atree. A project submission  together with a Full blown report and Power Point  presentation was mandatory to successfully complete the course. Me and Pradeep Kuttava teamed  together to make a mini project of finding if  Kani Tribe practiced sustainable way of living in the  Mundanthurai plateau. We picked up this project  since both of us lacked the scientific knowledge  to do more prospective projects that directly  dealt with environment and species. You can find  the report and PPT at these locations.