A tribal woman and elementary school teacher looks forward, toward the Kalvarayan hills. In the artificial lake, some fishermen with small boats are trying to catch something. It is February and the rains have been scarce. The water level has dropped significantly, turning the lake into muddy water.
Some children play near the tribal village of Perumanatham. After they took speed running around the pole, they launch themselves in the air using the ropes attached to it.
Early Morning. We're at a school's hostel. A small group of little girls of different ages (circa 6 to 9) are getting ready to go to school. Specifically, in the photo, they make each other's hair braided. Older girls take care of the younger ones. Since a young age, little girls are educated to do not have careless and/or untied hair within a work environment.
A teacher at work during an afternoon recovery class, organized in a public school. On the Kalvarayan, the educational problem is worrying. 25% of students leave school and 18% have never signed up. In general, only 24% of the tribals are literate, compared to 72% of the regional average. Moreover, due to gender discrimination, the phenomenon is amplified for women and girls. The causes of these numbers are teacher absenteeism, seasonal migration for work, poor quality of education, corruption and, lastly, lack of access to school hostels.
Children try Bollywood-style dances in a room within Polluvapady's school. * * * Indian cinema is a pure reflection of the collective imagination as well as its main feeder. With his dances, romantic stories and his actors-heroes, Indian films allow ordinary people to dream, in a world where if you are born poor you die like that. Although Bollywood is known and followed, in Tamil Nadu Kollywood is the protagonist, that is the film industry in the Tamil language.
Tribal woman is involved in roadworks, helped by her kids. Despite child labour is illegal, it's still alive in the rural places where I've been in South India. As soon as they're able to work, parents often bring their kids with them, for potentially earning, in this way, more money. During migration for work purpose, parents force kids to suspend their school classes for a long time, usually months. In a school free from corruption, it means being flunked out and forced to repeat the academic year. Often, the kids never get back to school.
Surrounded by his friends and young students, this boy from the tribal village of Thalvennyur shows his severely burned leg. According to what has been reported, an accident has caused this burn while he was at home. Because of a mix of illiteracy, poverty and indifference, the boy has never undertaken medical cures. With damaged tendons and no medical attention, he could not use or bend the leg normally, compromising, as a result, his motor functions.
Portrait of a tribal child left in his school's hostel during the weekend, near the tribal village of Polluvapady.
Bus Driver (on the right) cleans bus's foggy window with hot water, previously prepared with firewood by a tribal woman of Earakampattu village. In January, the "Hills" are full of mist and humidity during the early morning, creating an intense condensation on most of the vehicles. Due to the absence of the AC system inside buses, drivers have to find alternative ways for defogging windows.
The depicted man has just finished turning around the cows three times, while he was repeatedly shouting a sing-song against the evil spirits and throwing an ocher-colored liquid on the perimeter of his property. This type of magical practice is common during the Pongal festivity.
In January 2019, a group of men in Vellimalai, a town located within the Kalvarayan Hills, were captured in the process of preparing the drums for a parade celebrating the emancipation of women. The parade was a significant event that saw the participation of over 2,000 tribal women, along with the area's highest rank police officer, reflecting the importance of the occasion. Rural India is known for its lively and noisy celebrations, which allow the community to break free from the monotony of daily life.
Tribal women sews a dress for a client, within her home. Thanks to social-development projects provisioned by foreign NGOs, many poor women can start a small businesses, with the purpose of generating an income. By doing that, not only they help their families but also raise up their social status within their community.
This photo depicts a tribal mother and her child posing in the remote village of Thalvennyur, located within the Kalvarayan Hills. This village is one of the most isolated in the region, with limited access due to its distance from the already challenging Kalvarayan road network. Visitors must have a local guide and a 4x4 vehicle, and it takes over an hour to travel just a few kilometers. Thalvennyur suffers from a lack of access to education, medical services, and quality and quantity of food, even by Kalvarayan standards. The isolation also leads to a lack of social activities, and the community struggles with widespread alcoholism, which often leads to impetuous behaviors, especially at the expense of women and children.
The photo captures a medical camp organized by the NGOs "Please Sound" and "DHAN" in Kalvarayan Hills, aimed at providing medical assistance to the local tribal community. The image shows a paramedic checking the level of anaemia in a tribal mother, as her child reportedly showed signs of malnutrition. Anaemia is a widespread health problem in Kalvarayan, affecting about 70% of the local population, primarily due to inadequate nutrition. However, the lack of proper infrastructure and transport services amplifies the health difficulties faced by the people, with nearly half of the households living far from the precarious road network, which denies them access to local first aid facilities. The medical camp is one of the ways in which NGOs are working to address the health challenges faced by the tribal communities in the region.
End of the working day. A woman and man, two tribal people from the village of Vellimalai, walk to come back home. In front of them, there is their farmland, in which predominates the cereal par excellence on Kalvarayan Hills (as well as among Southeast Asia area), that is, rice. Here, agriculture and forest-based livelihood are the major sources of income to the community. Despite agriculture is the predominant activities for tribes, due to seasonal failures and middlemen intervention, farmers are unable to get a stable and fair income from crop cultivation. In fact, a simple middleman can markup up to 900% from its purchases, simply distributing product from Kalvarayan Hills to the nearest big city.
After the working day, a matriculation school cooker watches television within her room.
A pans street vendor moves away from the main village of Vellimalai with his motorbike. Since it's the end of the working day, he's probably on his way home.
Tribal family inside and in front of their house made of straw and mud in the village of Innadu.
One of the rare Kalvarayan filling stations. The photo shows the one in Vellimalai, one of the most relevant villages within Kariyalur area. Petroleum is a precious commodity for tribals, often accessible only to who receive an adequate income, relative to their standards. In fact, the lack of demand is fueled by the inconvenient relationship between the fuel price (around € 1.33 / Lt. - Apr 2022) and the average salary (around €75 / month).
After sunset (and work) three men, tipsy, chat close to a small "coffee shop", on the main street of the village of Vellimalai. Among the tribal men of the Kalvarayan, the primary activity for recreation after work is drinking alcohol, preferably local, as it is cheaper. The almost total absence of playful and social activities feeds the present and pressing phenomenon of alcoholism in the area.
A Kalvarayan tribal elder carries a log of wood and some pans that she will use to cook dinner. Many tribals still use wood firing. The collection of wood is often the responsibility of women, even elderly.
An elderly man and a boy are sitting and watching a meeting taking place on the main road of their remote village in the Kalvarayan Hills. They kindly posed for me when they understood i was making a photograph.
Two tribal men are depicted standing in front of the camera, raising their hands in a typical greeting gesture, while a child in the background watches the scene. The gesture they make is known as "nandri" in Tamil, the local language. It is a way to express greetings and/or gratitude.
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Kalvarayan Echoes

A Visual Journey into Kalvarayan's Soul and Malayali Heritage

 

The Kalvarayan Hills, also known as Kalrayan, are a mountainous region located within the interior of Tamil Nadu, India. The region is known for its unique cultural heritage and is home to various indigenous tribes, including the Malayali, who are officially recognized as the largest tribal community in Tamil Nadu, counting around 310,000 members within it. The Malayalis are traditionally known as "people of the mountains" and are considered as one of the most ancient tribes of India, known for their rich cultural heritage, traditional customs and practices, and unique languages.

The Kalvarayan Hills have a rich history dating back to the pre-colonial era. The region has been isolated for centuries, and the Malayalis have been largely self-sufficient, with a traditional way of life based on agriculture and hunting. However, their isolation was broken in 1976 when the Indian government began to exert control over the region, and the Malayalis started to experience a period of fluctuating progress as they worked towards social and economic normalization in line with current Indian standards.

Despite the progress made, the Kalvarayan Hills continue to struggle with inadequate infrastructure, particularly in the form of a precarious road network. This lack of accessibility not only hinders economic growth but also negatively impacts the socio-cultural development of the region. Additionally, the region is facing many challenges such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and loss of traditional knowledge, which is a threat to the livelihoods and cultural heritage of the Malayalis. My documentary work aims to shed light on the cultural heritage, the current living conditions and the everyday life of the Malayalis community in the Kalvarayan Hills, and to raise awareness about the challenges that the region is facing.