MYSURU: The forest department has taken up a project to survey the Soliga tribal population living in the thick forests of Chamarajanagar district. The survey aims at studying educational, economic and social status of tribals to extend basic facilities.
As per initial reports, the department has collected the details of 40,000 Soliga tribals who had been living inside the woods and forest fringe areas of the district in over 148 tribal hamlets.
Chamarajanagar taluk forest areas has 25 such tribal hamlets with 1,488 families, Yelandur (10) with 691 families, Gundlupet (33) with 1,487 families, Kollegal (5) and the highest in Hanur taluk (75) with 4,177 families. Chamarajangar district has a total of 7,483 Soliga families.
Majority of families still live in the small thatched roof houses and several members discontinued their education in schools and colleges. Though the state and Union government introduced Ujwala Free Cooking Gas Cylinders scheme for tribals, majority of the families still use firewood to cook food without access to such facilities.
As there is no access to roads and street lights in many tribal hamlets, people in these areas still live in the dark, eking out living without any transportation facilities to the mainland.
To resolve the issues faced by the Soliga tribals, the forest department has now decided to conduct a survey of all these families as it would help identify genuine beneficiaries for government benefits, said sources.
Speaking to TOI, director of Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve Santhosh Kumar said that officials have started the survey after visiting the households of these tribal families.
As many as 25 tribal hamlets come under his Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve limits. “Forest department has introduced various self-employment activities including manufacturing several bamboo products, promotion of cultivation of coffee, agarbatti making, sale of forest minor products. It has also helped hundreds of tribal youths to get jobs in various private and public sector organisations,” he said.
“Though the government had conducted such surveys earlier on several occasions, the life of Soliga tribals still continues to be miserable without access to basic facilities. The survey must come up with positive solutions to end the problems of these families,” Chamarajanagar District Soliga Tribal Welfare Association C Madegowda told TOI.
