At home in a cave

Cholanaickens prefer to live in the rock caves, closest to the forest rivulets, often their only source of water.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Cholanaickens are experts basket weavers. Although they make for beautiful handicrafts, Poonikottai, baskets made of reeds and cane, are not sold. They are used to store household articles and to carry forest produce.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

The Cholanaickens are wary of strangers. But we were accompanied by Moinkutty, who runs the forest produce collection centre and is familiar to the Cholanaickens’ who exchange fruits, honey and pepper for rice, salt, oil and chilly at the centre.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

The hidden caves of the Cholanaickens in interior Karulai-Chungathara reserve forests in Nilambur valley, Kerala. Cholanaickens, who on translation stand for ‘Kings of Evergreen forest’, migrated from forests in nearby Mysore forests centuries ago.In 2002, the state government recognized Cholanaickens as one of the five primitive indigenous communities in Kerala.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Karimbuzha Mathan smiles reminiscing about his trip to New Delhi with his wife. In 2005, the couple were taken to the capital to attend the Republic Day celebrations. The next day, they had an appointment with the Prime Minister. But when frisked by the security personnel, a piece of arecanut and tobacco, which the tribals chew, were found on Karikka. She and Mathan was not allowed to meet the PM.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

No names yet, Cholanaika children are given names only when seven or eight years old. Infant mortality is high among the Cholanaickens. Medical care is hard to come by, given the remoteness of their quarters.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Karikka’s stares unsparingly into the lens as she relaxes for a portrait. All Cholanaicken families keep dogs for hunting and as guards for their rock shelters.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

The Karimbuzha alai. There are 11 such rock caves in Nilambur, most of them natural rock formations. The Cholanaickens avoid caves close to the ground to protect against wild animals and floods during the rains. During monsoons, they confine themselves to the caves; in other seasons they wander into the forests in search of minor forest produce.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Karimbuzha Ravi stands next to a calendar that hangs from a bamboo pole fixed in front of the alai. Irrelevant print on paper for a community cut off from the outside, this calendar symbolizes the slow yet inevitable transition in the identity of these cave dwellers.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Across the river, Karimbuzha Ravi’s children row the bamboo raft which they themselves built. The Cholanaicka children spend hours building tiny bamboo huts and designing ladders and rafts.The daily rigours of leading a life in forests, leave the parents with less time to care for their wards. The Cholanaicka kids taste independence at a young agePhotographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

A Cholanaicken wanders in search of food and forest produce. It is usually the men who gather minor forest produce such as honey, ginger, wild pepper and soap seeds. Women and children collect tubers, fruits, nuts and seeds. The tribe leads a semi nomadic life in the forests and have limited contact with the outside world. It was in 1970, that the existence of the Cholanaickans in the Nilambur valley was discovered, and till recently they were considered an offshoot of the Kattunaickans, another tribe living in the same valley.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

A view of the Karimbuzha Alai from the inside. Families of Karimbuzha Mathan and Karimbuzha Ravi live in this alai. The Cholanaicka men add the name of their alai to their name. Kept neat and clean, the tribe folk do not urinate near the alai. The entrance is left narrow, and the unlit space inside is demarcated for pale (sitting) and malathala (sleeping).Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Women folk number only 161 out of the tribe’s population of 363. The skewed sex ratio in the tribe leads young men to either seek alliances with the neighbouring Kattunaickans, or remain celibate.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Bringing up the child is usually women’s work as men are mostly away, hunting and gathering food.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Karimbuzha Ravi’s mother now cooks in aluminium vessels bought from the Nilambur market. Earlier she used bamboo pots. Each family may gather and cook food separately, but meals are community affairs.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Karimbuzha Ravi’s family is nuclear. When a Cholanaicken son marries, he moves out of his parent’s alai and establishes a new home in the vicinity. Girls after marriage follow their husbands into the new alai.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi

Stoic yet warm, Kuppumala Chellan bids us farewell. The Cholanaickens live in a present unburdened by the past, and unbothered about the future.Photographs by: Ajeeb Komachi