Notes on Wayanad(Kerala) Field study of tribal communities after 2018 floods and landslides. Includes information about lifestyle and situation of tribal people in different circumstances.

1. WAYANAD FIELD STUDY
STUDIO - LANDSCAPE OF TRANSITION
Documentation & Reflection
Jahnavi Vegad
Human Centred Design
Srishti Institute of Design, Bengaluru

2. Discussion on Landscapes
‣ Considering that landscapes are a part of nature, people got attached to it in order to feel connected to nature.
‣ When urbanisation came in picture, transition on many levels started happening - landscape transitions, transition of relation
b/w people and landscapes etc.
Transition Design (TED Talk - Terry Irwin)
‣ History is ramification of transitions in hindsight.
‣ The systems that we can’t see(the way a fish can’t see water), gets difficult to design.
‣ Three levels of transition are: LANDSCAPE, NICHE, REGIME
‣ Landscape - when an individual innovates a design and uses it for him/herself. (Electricity)
‣ Niche - when the idea gets amplified in terms of scale. (Electric trams)
‣ Regime - when the idea is accepted/adopted by higher authorities i.e. governments etc. (Everywhere)
‣ Wicked problem : A design problem which stays throughout the three levels of transition design.
‣ Either designers keep providing temporary alternatives instead of a “solution”, or they just can’t spot the wicked problem
and keep solving the tiny problems around the wicked problem.
CLASSROOM 11/9/18 - 19/9/18

3. Field Guide
‣ It is a flexible plan to organise the collection and process of overwhelming amount of information on field, which should be
updated from time to time.
Discussion with Prof. Narendra Raghunath
‣ Discussion about the crisis that floods have created in Kerala
‣ Crops that grow in Kerala: paddy, ginger, pepper, coffee, tea, banana (washed with rains)
‣ No crops to feed cattle
‣ Tourism industry
‣ “Responsible tourism” - tourism without causing any damage to the eco-system, sustainable and profitable for farmers as
well as tourists, involving culture into tourism
‣ Wayanad has a lot of people who practise indigenous practices. (Some of them also believe the floods happened because
they didn’t perform some traditional rituals.)
CLASSROOM 11/9/18 - 19/9/18
How do we define disaster?
‣ Disaster isn’t an event, it’s a result of an event that creates anthropocentric loss that is too big a scale for that particular eco-
system.
‣ The idea of disaster is human-centred.

4. Vision
‣ Sharing, living, evaluating, growing
‣ To give back to communities, work on grass-root level - ACTIONABLE
Discussion with Deeptha Satheesh
‣ What all is included under landscapes?
‣ soil, mist, dew, any kind of respiration system etc etc.
‣ Conflicts in landscapes
‣ River water conflicts, land conflicts, human elephant conflicts etc.
‣ Every design has an intention behind it.
‣ Designing becomes interestingly different for seen and unseen things.
‣ While studying disaster, keep in mind that people are not in their usual state of minds now.
‣ Also, give water and landscape a voice to understand what all is happening.
CLASSROOM 11/9/18 - 19/9/18
Great
opportunities
Known
Known
Unknown
Unknown
(World)
(Things)

5. WAYANAD FIELD TRIP - TIMELINE 20/9/18 - 27/9/18
Bangalore to Kalpetta
20/9/18
Thursday
21/9/18
Friday
22/9/18
Saturday
23/9/18
Sunday
24/9/18
Monday
25/9/18
Tuesday
26/9/18
Wednesday
27/9/18
Thursday
Uraavu - Bamboo Groves
DOCUMENTATION
Kottathara farms
Mananthavady Landslides
Thanal, Kalpetta
Mothekkara School
Kalpetta to Bangalore
Dr.Abdullah Kutti, Henna,
Shivraj, Bamboo workers
Session with Mr.Sumesh
Saumini, Gautham, Swathi
Farmers-Raghu, Saju,
Binduchechi , Localites
Landslide affected people, farmers
Sijo, Nikhilesh, Raju,
Ajith from Thanal
Sugathan- ex headmaster,
Headmaster, School teachers,
School kids
Kumbalanatti
Meeting with Mr. Sumesh,
Farmers and Panchayat members

6. About Uraavu, Talking with Dr. Abdulla Kutty
‣ Uraavu is an organisation that started out with idea of making livelihoods sustainable and employment of local people. Using
bamboos, it hires and trains people for making arts and handicrafts. These products are sold all over the country and the
profits are used for making more such products and more plantations of bamboos.
‣ Uraavu plants and harvests its own supply of bamboos. As land availability is an issue in that region, it often pays farmers for
cultivating bamboo in their fields.
‣ Uraavu bamboo groves
‣ 50+ different species of bamboos(pen bamboo, elephant bamboo etc etc) in Uraavu, many of these species are
imported to Uraavu for plantation purposes from North-East India and China.
‣ Challenges for Uraavu
‣ Financial - drop in funds after floods, land unavailability
‣ Can’t export - can’t produce handicrafts on big scale because labour issues and can’t replace labour with machines
‣ Marketing issues - because of floods the sales has dropped, people should know that Uraavu is still up and running
URAAVU 21/9/18

7. Talking with Shivraj, co-founder of Uraavu
‣ The current post-flood scenario of the area - when will Wayanad rebuild?
‣ Only 7% land of Wayanad is residentially capable to be built on, which because of landslides is not an option to rebuild
on.
‣ Different livelihoods are affected differently by floods - the tribes find it kind of easier to cope with than the middle class
people.
‣ Uraavu’s role in rebuilding is suggesting more sustainable and safe options to temporary structures. However, people find it
very tough to pay for such designs.
URAAVU 21/9/18
REFLECTIONS
While Uraavu seems a great place, it’d be interesting to learn what is the exact buyers’ categories for Uraavu products.
Because the people who create those designs are in a way learning and promoting everything about sustainable, natural
bamboo designs but then they’re making that for the upper-middle and urban classes to buy, and thus never using one for
themselves.
The question arises here is, is Uraavu really for betterment of livelihoods or is it commercialising itself more and more
with time? Does the scenario change post-floods?
Talking with Shivraj, it felt like a lot of assumptions for tribes are being made by people from all the other classes. Here,
understanding the difference between Tribes finding it okay to deal with floods and assuming such scenario from an elite
point of view is interesting.

8. Books Suggested
‣ The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
‣ Disasters become plots of opportunities when people become helpless and communities disoriented.
‣ Dead Aid, Dambisa Mayo
Discussion
‣ Charity always comes with conditions.
‣ Rebuilding of a place can be truly scary because of trickling down effect.
‣ Tata vs. Reliance vs. Amul (Capitalist vs. Co-operative)
‣ Efficiency vs. Effectiveness (Running an organisation vs. Running a community)
MINUTES OF IN- HOUSE MEETING (MOM) 21/9/18
Organising our work
‣ Organisations & their structures
‣ Materials
‣ Network mapping (stakeholders)

9. MINUTES OF IN- HOUSE MEETING (MOM) 22/9/18
Organising our work
‣ Organisations & their structures
‣ Materials
‣ Network mapping (stakeholders)
Discussion
‣ Automation vs. mechanisation (Where, why and how do we atomise?)
‣ The whole business on objects depends on weather it is consumer or producer based; we are mostly fed the idea of “what is
best?”
‣ Example: Value of hand-made products vs. Value of high-end machine products
‣ Does any tradition stay static?
‣ Innovation in traditional products & methods (ex: USB sticks with Bidri work on them)
‣ Evolution in traditions is not forced, it’s what is convenient.

10. About Kabani
‣ Merging tourism with communities - tourism can be additional income for farmers.
‣ 65% population of Wayanad is into agriculture, remaining are tribal communities. (Paniyas & Kuruchiyas)
‣ Setting up home-stays in Kottathara - trying to involve Tribes(Paniyas) in the program
‣ Farmers’ program - consumers pay 3000 rs. To farmers as initial farming costs, consumers get benefits once the crop is
cultivated
‣ Not “Wayanad is a safe place to explore. (Govt.)” but “Come & help us as a visitor. (Kabani)” - Not disaster tourism though.
About Landslides & Floods
‣ Post flood process: Phase 1 - Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) and Phase 2: Rebuilding Plan & Disaster Management
plan.
‣ There lies absolute confusion about where to start building new places, as the unused land is less and there’s pressure of
using it efficiently.
‣ Did wrong agriculture lead to landslides? (around 300-400 landslides on different scales)
SESSION WITH MR. SUMESH(CO-FOUNDER, KABANI) 22/9/18

11. SESSION WITH MR. SUMESH 22/9/18
REFLECTIONS
This session was about a lot of insights from Mr. Sumesh who has been working in and around Wayanad for 10 years now.
Got a lot of basic informations about tribes, farmers and their professions as well as the post flood situation here in Wayanad.
Paniyas are yet to get involved into any “civilised”(as Mr. Sumesh uses it) activities including hosting the tourists and basic
education.
Also, how Kerala politics is still not that into flood-relief process as much as the youth has been involved.

12. Discussion with Saumini
‣ When a disaster happens, people usually don’t prioritise the cattle and pets. Most people sell them out in cheap prices in
order to buy food with that money.
‣ Now that most agricultural land has turned into grassland, instead of selling their cattle people can feed them. They can sell
the milk to Milk co-operative society. It is made of 2000 people which produces 20k litres milk everyday. Farmers, for getting
agricultural payback have to wait for around a year, but this has become their daily source of income in the time of disaster.
Agriculture
‣ Farmers have shifted from paddy to bananas lately. Main reason being paddy requires a lot of investment and isn’t
considered as a cash crop. Also, there are a lot of local experiments going on with agriculture lately - for example, growing
pepper on rubber trees because pepper is a creeper, growing bamboo groves on river banks to see if they can hold up the
soil in flood-times.
‣ Locally cultivated crops are- Green chilli, pepper, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, coffee, rubber, beans, bitter gourd. For
Bananas to grow, the water has to drain after some time, it can’t grow when the land is full of water. Which post-disaster, has
led to the failure of crops.
‣ Here in this village, the agriculture is completely rain dependent; there’s no irrigation.
‣ The tribal communities used to work in farms and sing songs and celebrate festivals, now that sort of cheerful traditions are
fading with locals(non-tribal people) farming. Over a period of time communities have lost connection with nature.
‣ People use locally available fertilisers like lime and Jeevamithra fertilisers.
KOTTATHARA 23/9/18

13. ‣ Climate justice- Urban people often think they’re not accountable for anything that happens in ecology.
‣ “What is modern for tribals?” - for us nowadays traditional is modern, might not be the same with the tribals.
‣ Issues with rescue operations while floods ( Glass pieces on fences of lands, every house having a well, boats taking time to
reach for rescuing)
KOTTATHARA 23/9/18
When reached at the village, it was a kind of disturbing sight for me. The land is all dried up after evaporation of flood waters,
the soil is slowly getting wide cracks all over the place and almost all the crops are dead. (The sight of green bananas hanging
to dried up crops was dreadful!)
Though, I could see how this post-flood situation was not typical post-disaster situation. People have already started farming
again, people are talking about smart ways of rebuilding and in general a very optimistic approach in any conversation that is
happening.
And this all is after third flood. People seemed sort of helpless about the natural calamity but they’re very keen on doing
the best they can do at this time.
Also, like it was predicted before the floods, the drying up of soil and lack of irrigation system in this area are a sign that a
drought situation might actually be possible.
It was interesting to see the locals talk about tribals and their issues and their traditions. Though tribal people stay in a
secluded area from villagers, the villagers seem to have a clear understanding about their mentality and their traits.
Although again, seeing some of the tribal people working in farms as workers was kind of off-putting sight, as they didn’t
choose that life. Just because they don’t have lands, locals decide what they should do in order to get food. Which
contradicts to what it seemed like - that villagers had fair understanding of tribal people and that villagers understood
how they can’t decide anything for the tribes.

14. About Landslides
‣ 8th August - at 3 PM, the first landslide happens on a small scale, people in suspected dangerous areas are warned by Govt.
to evacuate their houses, mud and sand have already started to come inside the houses, the usually clean streams started
having mud in the water - people read signs
‣ 16th August - at midnight, massive landslide happens and everything collapses, around 5-6 houses completely unrooted with
slabs etc, no people inside those because of prior warnings and signs
‣ Govt. is giving 6 lacs for land lost and 4 lacs for building the houses. Also, Kabani and Uraavu like organisations are trying to
help people in rebuilding process under the umbrella of “We for Wayanad”.
‣ All the houses we saw in Mananthavady that day were owned by Kuruchiya tribes. There are some Paniya tribes living in
secluded societies behind that area too.
MANANTHAVADY LANDSLIDES 24/9/18

15. MANANTHAVADY LANDSLIDES 24/9/18
REFLECTIONS
The landslides hit the village on larger scale, it was a sight that can’t be written or captured in photographs but only
experienced while one is standing there.
Everything was collapsed, huge trees, complete bamboo groves uprooted from river banks. New river streams flowing on
what once was a road, the slabs of the houses are flung far away from where the houses stood once.
An interesting thing I observed about the people who were affected by landslides and floods (i.e. With their homes/farms
gone) was that even though they were still in fresh recovery phase, they were sort of confident about building up again.
They switched to other kind of crops and they started building permanent homes. Even though one can’t erase the
memories of flood, they seemed to have resilient spirit - like if they had enough resources those people can completely
recover in short time.
Also, as an outsider to the field it was interesting to see all the NGO chairpersons and panchayat heads and researchers
translating very ground level information for us and for the farmers.
I wonder if there is any loss/addition of information in both the cases, but from whatever conversations we had, it seems
so challenging to design for this kind of transition.
With all the trees and homes, it felt like even the people are uprooted, along with their professions and their growth.

16. Kabani Projects
‣ Event for 2nd October - expanding home-stays among Paniya tribes as well as more Kuruchiya tribes, increasing tourism via
awareness activities by communities
‣ #NAAMUMBODE - means with empathy and love.
‣ Introducing a tag for every positive thing happening around Wayanad(For example, value added crops could be sold
under this name).
‣ Building a bio-diversity park near one of the schools under “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan” (SSA)
KUMBALANATTI 24/9/18
Discussion with Panchayat Members & Farmers
‣ Due to the floods, there has been 1 degree rise in temperature, 10% loss of agricultural soil and 20% loss in Banana crops.
‣ Disaster management should be at Panchayat level and not at macro level, but with the support from all the villagers.
‣ For example, Farmers are expected to pitch in 30% of cost for a Plantation machine that the Panchayat is trying to buy for
the village.
‣ Panchayat trying to construct new roads through the destructed paddy fields.
It was interesting to see Panchayat trying and working hard on the disaster management program. The politics, according to
the people we’ve been talking to has not yet penetrated the whole relief system around this village.
Although somewhere it felt like a lot was being talked about in that room that kind of felt hypothetical at that time.

17. Thanal Projects
‣ “Save rice” - campaigns to protect paddy cultivation
‣ Climate action program - program for planning agriculture while climate change
‣ Carbon Neutral Hub - measure environment in terms of carbon - Wayanad
‣ Zero waste city/ Green army - Himalayas
‣ Thanal Organic Bazaar - Chennai
‣ Measures for farmers to cultivate organically, adding value to such cultivated produces, run organic shops for such
produce
Other insights
‣ Due to Kerala education & economy, the rates of labours here are higher than that of North’s.
THANAL 25/9/18

18. ‣ The school is located amidst the mountains and hills, has a playground, huge corridors and around 10 classrooms divided in
two single story buildings, the district library is located next to the school.
‣ Total of 120 students from 1st to 4th std. study there, the diversity in terms of different communities is found among those.
‣ The teaching methods and syllabus is all covered by “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan” initiative by Govt. - Different materials like maps/
games are provided.
‣ Also, jeeps for transportation of students are provided by Govt.
‣ School has a special staff member for interacting with students/parents who are not interested in coming to school - mostly
from Paniya tribes.
‣ Also, a staff member for focusing on children with learning disabilities or slow learners.
Even though the diversity in terms of communities and gender and much more is found among the students, there seemed to
be no bias-ness or inequality among or for students.
It was nice seeing all of them playing so many familiar games and just enjoying their school time to the fullest, instead of
wearing different clothes, having totally different background and different levels of gasping powers.
The teaching method adopted by school via SSA seemed commendable at that level.
for example, analytical reasoning and other excursuses that are practiced at much higher education level are usual for
these students in the same form as it is rehearsed world-wide.
Also, most of the students know what they’re studying - from the mathematical games they were playing, it came out how
sharp their basic concepts are.
MOTHAKKARA - SCHOOL UNDER “SSA” 26/9/18