Education department recently prepares exclusive talking texts for bed-ridden tribal girl in Kerala under the Samagra Shiksha Kerala’ program.
They are one of the most isolated tribes inhabits the forests in the Nilambur Valley of Malappuram district of Kerala.
Nomenclature - They call themselves as Malanaikan or Sholanaikan.
Cholanaikkans (coolanaaykkan) are called the Cavemen of Kerala.
Shola or chola means deep thicket in the forest and naikan means king.
They are the only cave dwelling community in India.
Population - They are small tribe with a total population of less than 400 persons, they are diminishing recently.
Groups - They are divided into smaller groups called Jenmam. They have no fixed dwellings but prefer to live close to water sources.
They are found in groups consisting of 2 to 7 primary families. Each group is called a Chemmam.
Diet - The community lives essentially by scavenging the forest.They do not cultivate due to the problem of elephants trampling over their produce.
Habitat - A fraction of whom live in caves, the rest in temporary self-built structures.
Their forest area is completely protected and outsiders are not even allowed to scavenge for forest produce or contact the tribal communities.
They live in a protected forest with elephants and other wild animals including occasional sighting of tigers. Antelopes are very common.
Language - They speak a language which is weakly called Dravidian but it is not directly related to any of the modern Dravidian languages.
Their names also suggest local words and do not carry any names from Hindu mythologies or other more prevalent names suggesting long period of isolation.
Classification Status - They are classified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
