Kadar Tribe

The Kadar is a small tribe of southern India which lives in the hilly border region the cities of Cochin and Coimbatore in the states of Kerala and Tamil N?du, respectively.

About the Kadar people

• The Kadar people live in the forests and have not been observed to practice any form of agriculture.
• They build their shelters with thatch leaves which are temporary and they keep shifting location as demand by their employment.
• The Kadar people eat rice which is obtained by trading and or the wages for the work done by them as they don’t practice agriculture to grow their own foodgrains.
• The Kadar people have served as the specialized collectors of honey, wax, sago, cardamom, ginger, and umbrella sticks which they use in their trade with other merchants.
• Kadar men often find work as laborers for infrastructure projects and as forest guides to supplement their forest produce income.
• Kadar are a small tribe with a barely small population of 2000 people who speak a dialect of the Dravidian languages of Tamil and Kanna?a.
• The Kadar worship the jungle spirits.
• While the Kadar tribe has been listed as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) in Kerala, it has not been accorded to the tribe in Tamil Nadu. Being listed as PVTG allows a tribe habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act 2006.

Why are the Kadar in news?

Over 23 families of a Kallar Kadar tribal settlement which was located in the dense woods of Anamalai Tiger Reserve were asked to temporarily relocate to unoccupied habitats near Valparai after the forest department asked removed their previous habitats.

These Kadar people included some people who had never even left the forest till date and the relocation is a gross violation of the basic rights accorded to the people who are accustomed to a traditional way of living.