Kerala turns to tribal wisdom to help solve human-animal conflict

Thiruvananthapuram: In the forests of Kerala, where elephants sometimes stray into villages and leopards are spotted near farmland, a new effort is underway to ease tensions between humans and wildlife—by listening to those who have lived closest to nature for generations.

For the first time in India, the Kerala Forest Department has launched a programme called 'Gothrabheri', which brings together the traditional knowledge of tribal communities to help address human-animal conflict in the state.

These communities, 37 in total, have lived in and around Kerala's forests for centuries. Many of them once shared the landscape peacefully with wild animals, following age-old customs that respected the rhythms of the natural world.

Now, as that balance has become harder to maintain, officials hope these communities might hold part of the answer.

In recent months, the Forest Department held regional gatherings with tribal representatives, encouraging them to share their experiences and ideas.

The aim is to collect this wisdom and turn it into a practical guide for forest and wildlife management—one that reflects both science and lived experience.

Kerala Forest Minister A K Saseendran, while inaugurating the final state-level convention of Gothrabheri here two days ago, said that the state government came up with the idea of Gothrabheri after realising that 13 out of the 19 people killed in wild elephant attacks this year were tribals, and that the attacks occurred inside forest areas.

"We wanted to study why such attacks are happening now, when they were rare or unheard of in the past. So we decided to listen to the tribals and gather the indigenous knowledge that once helped them live in harmony with wild animals," Saseendran said.

He added that the final state-wide convention was organised to bring in experts to codify the inputs collected by the department from 18 regional conventions, and to include them in the management plan for the coming year.

"The indigenous knowledge possessed by the tribal communities that are very deeply rooted in nature, environment, and ecosystem management. So what we are planning is to gather this information from tribals themselves and use it in our day-to-day forest and wildlife management strategies," P Pugazhenthi IFS, head of Kerala Forest Force, told PTI.

He said the department listened to 37 tribal communities in Kerala during the regional convention.

"Wonderful ideas regarding nature conservation, sustainable development, human-animal conflict mitigation, and co-existence have come up. Our idea is to bring them together and compile them to form a management tool," Pugazhenthi said.

He said the department is also planning to invite some start-ups to convert some of the ideas they got from the conventions into products.

"Tribal communities have been participating in all our management efforts, and this is far beyond what they will physically contribute. Here, they are going to contribute intellectually as well," Pugazhenthi said.

He said, though there could have been some on-and-off efforts to engage the tribal community in forest and wildlife management, this is the first time in the country that such a concerted effort has been taken to collect their indigenous knowledge and use it in forest and wildlife management.

Raman Rajamannan, the only existing Tribal King in Kerala, from Kovilmalai in Idukki, said the entire tribal community in the state is positive about the project and welcomes it.

"This has been our long-standing demand—to be heard on this issue. We, too, have been facing the problem, especially with wild boars, and have had to give up most of our traditional crops and switch to cash crops. This has affected us both financially and socially," Rajamannan told PTI.

He said tribal communities in Kerala used to have a strong sense of responsibility towards forests and wildlife.

"That connection and commitment have drastically declined. We used to treat the forest and its animals as sacred. There was always respect," he said, adding that tribes used to refer to elephants as Patti and tigers and leopards as Thathan—affectionate terms commonly used to address elders with respect.

"There are wrongdoers in our communities as well, and perhaps because of such actions, we are now facing what feels like a curse— these increasing wild animal attacks. So it’s very important to remember how we once lived peacefully, and try to return to that way of life," he added.

He said the project has already captured the indigenous knowledge of tribal communities in forest and wildlife management, and that implementing it on the ground will greatly benefit both tribal people and the wider public.

"We are wholeheartedly supporting it, because they are genuinely listening to us," he said.