Punarjeevanam

Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary has 11 tribal colonies in its jurisdiction. As per the govt. policies the tribes have been supplied enough rice as the main food for the last 15-20 years. This resulted in losing interests for more millet cultivation over a period of time. Gradually, the traditional cultivators have lost many varieties of millets during the last 20 years. That also affected their health adversely. Understanding the same, Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary has initiated a programme named ‘Punarjeevanam’ for conserving traditional varieties of Millets & others.

Thayannankudy is one of the Muthuva Tribal settlements, where Traditional agriculture practices have been followed successfully. With the support of tribes from different colonies, we have collected number of millet varieties which they didn’t use for cultivation for the last few years due to many reasons. With the aim to conserve maximum number of traditional millet varieties, we have regenerated the rare millet seeds collected, by cultivation and enhanced the seed stock during 2016-17. Then we distributed various seeds to all the tribal colonies in and around Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary to ensure its further multiplication.

The efforts for the same was noted by the agriculture department and recommended for state award. Finally Thayannankudy Tribal colony was awarded as the best tribal colony in the state considering the remarkable efforts for conserving traditional agricultural practices in collaboration with forest department.   

The main objective of the project named “Punarjeevanam” under ‘Thayannankudy EDC’ was to multiply the quantity of the rare and endemic millet varieties in maximum number of Tribal colonies in Marayoor- Anchunadu area. The conservation efforts were effective and for the last few years we have retrieved and conserved more than 15 Millet & other small seed varieties.

List of Ragi/Varagu/Thina/Chama & other millet varieties restored by Punarjeevanam Project.

 Other Agriculture Varieties Restored & Conserved

Most of the above varieties have vernacular names only, since many of the varieties have to be named after scientific studies. Further studies on them are in progress.

thayannankudy state award