ATTAPPADI

The 745 sq. km area of Attappadi is the first tribal block in Kerala. In the 1950s, over 90% of the area was dense reserve forests. Now it is down to around 20%.

Attappadi consists of three villages - Agali, Pudur, and Sholayar in Palakkad District. It shares borders with different districts of Tamil Nadu. Since independence, the percentage of the Adivasi population has declined from 91% to 41%. At the same time, the non-tribal population surged from 11,000 to 67,000. The major tribes are Irula, Muduga and Kurumba.

I started documenting the tribal hamlets of Attappadi in 2013 when 63 infant deaths due to malnutrition were reported from these villages. Since then I have been to Attappadi many times, and the nature of my documentation has turned into an examination of how the tribal population is affected in the long term by various State policies.