By Netpal Travel Bureau
In the Nilgiris, hidden deep inside the forests, lives a small tribe of about 200 people,
the Cholanaikkans. They call themselves Malai Nayakkar, meaning “leaders of the
hills.” For centuries, they remained unknown to the outside world. It was only in the
late 1970s that the Kerala Forest Department discovered them, living quietly in rock
shelters, far away from rivers, roads, and villages.
The journey to their home begins at the last tea stall on the Karulai road in
Malappuram district. From here, the path winds through thick forests where the air
smells of wet bark, turmeric, and rain-soaked earth. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve
surrounds you, and somewhere within this vast green silence are the Cholanaikkans.
Once a week, the tribe walks to a small wooden hut set up by the government in a
forest clearing. Here, they exchange honey collected from tall trees and cliffs for rice,
salt, clothes, and sometimes tools. Their homes are simple—rock overhangs and huts
made of bamboo leaves.
Their lifestyle is close to nature. Men wear short mundus, women wrap unstitched
cloth around themselves, and on cold nights, they use animal skins or leaf capes.
Ornaments are few, maybe a string of beads, a bangle, or a piece of coloured cloth.
Their food comes directly from the forest: tubers, yams, jackfruit, bamboo shoots,
fish, jungle fowl, lizards, and squirrels. Leafy greens and herbs are gathered for both
food and medicine. Meat is smoked over fires, while porridge made from arrowroot is
steamed inside bamboo tubes sealed with leaves.
The Cholanaikkans’ customs are as unique as their world. At a child’s birth, they
place a stone in a river bend, letting the water carry blessings forward. When
someone dies, the body is left in caves, sealed with branches, so the forest can take it
back. Certain groves are never entered, as they belong to spirits older than the tribe
itself.
Walking with them, you realise something rare—that in today’s India, true isolation
is not about distance. It is about living without depending on the outside world, in
harmony with nature, inside the green silence.
