Community base landscape development strategy for safeguarding livelihood of the Kanniyar tribes in Kerala

Abstract

The Kani tribal community have been losing their livelihoods and slowly their unique culture and traditional values. The community have been struggling from a long time to meet their basic needs. The settlements are in poor conditions and they lack a proper economic infrastructure. Apart from this, loss of forest lands and urbanisation has led the people to leave their natural homes in search for better opportunities. The Kani communities are a store of locally adapted landscape knowledge and the forefront of adaptation. Their lives and livelihoods are based on the local lands productivity, and their cultural and social lives are deeply connected to the forests, grasslands, fields, wetlands, and waterways within their landscapes. There are no one who are better to manage these landscapes and given their intimate knowledge of local conditions, they are often in the best position to improve ecosystem conditions on the ground and restore landscape resilience. The different aspects of culture and traditions that link the Kani tribe with their landscape is studied and analysed in order to achieve the objectives of protecting and safeguarding the community. These objectives are translated through landscape strategies and modules for attaining self sustaining Kani tribal community. Keywords: Kani tribe, Livelihood, Sustainable community, Integrated landscape, Community-based, Traditional knowledge