Day 11

1 m² of land is preserved as jungle by indigenous peoples in South India

Forest protection

by indigenous peoples

Ramesh is a teenager who does not look like a forest-dwelling Adivasi, who are also known as indigenous people. He grew up in the small town of Gudalur and wears jeans. One day a wild elephant came to the hospital in the residential area between the town and the edge of the forest. The local Adivasi adapted to the dangerous guest: no children playing in front of the house, no noise, the night shift started earlier. Nobody tried to chase the elephant away with lights and rockets. On the third day, Ramesh cut all the sugar cane from his family's field and carried it to the nearby forest. His family could have lived off the sugar cane for a month. "The elephant has to eat something. If it is chased, it gets angry. The poor thing just got lost." Apparently some of the Adivasi values continue, even if their lives have changed.

need

Protecting the rainforest and preserving a special culture

activity

The loan for the land purchase is being paid off.

Measurable performance

Number of square metres of land that is now under communal ownership by the Adivasi.

Result

Maintaining sustainable farming practices and reducing rural poverty

Systemically relevant impact

Financial independence of the Adivasi. Ecologically sensitive and sustainable lifestyle of the young Adivasi generations. Preservation of biodiversity in the ecosystem

background

The life of the Adivasi is closely linked to the forest. They used to live as semi-nomads, hunters and gatherers in the Nilgiris Mountains. They collected bamboo, firewood, herbs, tubers, fruit and honey. Today the Nilgiris Mountains and the life of the Adivasi have changed. Since 1800, large parts of the Nilgiris Mountains have been cleared for the cultivation of tea, coffee, pepper, teak and eucalyptus. Today, tea cultivation is the most important industry in the region. Tea plantation follows tea plantation.
In order to protect the remaining forests, UNESCO declared the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in 1986. The forest area is 5,520 km² in size and has particularly rich vegetation. Around 5,200 elephants and 535 tigers live here - more than anywhere else in India. But roads and plantations, settlements and tourist facilities sealed off with electric fences are increasingly preventing the wild animals from roaming freely. As a result, conflicts between wild animals, especially elephants, and people are becoming more frequent, and fatal accidents are often the result.
The 22,000 Adivasi in the Nilgiris Mountains have traditionally had a close relationship with the forest as indigenous people in their traditional daily lives, in their traditional religion and in their identity. The Adivasi have passed down rules from one generation to the next for hunting, honey harvesting, felling bamboo and collecting tubers and herbs that ensure the ecologically sustainable life of the forest and nature. But the Adivasi are minorities and have lost much of the land they settled in to plantation owners and families who have moved in. Today they work mainly as field workers and occasionally as day laborers on plantations and construction sites; they are impoverished and can no longer practice their traditional, sustainable forest use methods.

The good deed

The good deed will be used to pay off the interest-free loan that the Adivasi self-help organization AMS used to buy the 70-hectare tea plantation for the Adivasi in 1998. The plantation is run by the local Indian non-governmental organization ACCORD. The loan was granted by the British foundation Charities Advisory Trust. 301,223 euros (42.86 hectares) have already been paid off. 190,777 euros (27.14 hectares) of the interest are still outstanding. Medicinal herbs are being planted in the forest. Excursions and children's camps lasting several days combine modern education with the imparting of traditional knowledge.