Soligas & Yeravas – Indigenous people

A recent book has looked into the diets of Soligas and Yeravas communities, who have been living in the Cauvery Basin and the surrounding hills of peninsular India for thousands of years.

The book Forgotten Trails: Foraging Wild Edibles was authored by Malemleima Ningombi and Harisha RP.

Soligas – They are an indigenous tribe of Biligiri Rangan Hills (B.R. Hills) in Karnataka who have been dependent on the forests for their livelihood traditionally.They are also called as Children of bamboo.

Recognition of Soligas

They are considered the 1^st settlers of India.
Their home, BR Hills, was among the 1^st areas to be declared a wildlife sanctuary in India, in 1974.
They were the 1^st community to win resident rights in a tiger reserve when the region got the status in 2011.
New genus of waspwas named after them in recognition of their conservation of forests and biodiversity.
Under Indian law, they are recognized as a scheduled tribe.

Food – Honey is an important part of their diet.

Language – Sholaga, which belongs to the Dravidian family.

Occupation – Shifting cultivation and their main source of income is harvesting and sale of Non-timber Forest Produce (NTFP).

Culture – They follow naturism and animism along with following Hindu practices and their main deities are Madeshwara.

Yeravas

They came to Karnataka from Wayanad district in Kerala and settled in Kodagu district of the state whose settlements are called 'Kunju'.

Language – Revula language.

Occupation – Most of them are agricultural workers in coffee plantations and tea estates.
Culture – There are many customs and rituals practiced among the Adiyas who believe in witchcraft.
They perform a ritual dance to cure disease, ward off miseries and evil eye, and safe delivery of child.
Food – They use more tubers than Soligas.Mushrooms are part of their diet during monsoons while in winters, they depend on the wild berries and edible ferns.

The Western Ghats are one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, with over 5,000 flowering plants, 139 mammals, 508 birds and 179 amphibian species.

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