The picture post card perfect Marayoor-Chinnar landscape is also home to traditional agricultural practices such as cultivation of millets. This eleven minute documentary showcases the importance of such practices as well as the restoration of traditional millet cultivation in the old Anchu nadu villages including the areas of Chinnar wildlife Sanctuary and Marayoor.
Punarjeevanam is an endeavour for the conservation and revival of ethnic agro-biodiversity of the Muthuvan Tribal Community and in the process, securing their nutritional and income requirements. The brainchild behind this was the then Assistant Wildlife Warden of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and implemented through Thayannankudi Ecodevelopment Committee,way back in 2016.
The Muthuvan Community used to grow more than thirty types of traditional millet varieties. With the passage of time,their food habits altered, resulting in non cultivation of these indigenous millets and their gradual disappearance .Health of these Scheduled Tribes nosedived. The Ecodevelopment Committee members took earnest efforts to collect rare cultivars of millets from the adjoining Marayoor-Chinnar-Kanthaloor tribal areas and regenerated them in the project field, following traditional methods.
In the first year,eight finger millet varieties were successfully re-introduced and the numbers rose to fifteen by the end of the second year. By the end of the third year, twenty three traditional millet varieties could be cultivated and it increased to twenty eight, as the fourth year drew to a close,in 2019.This project bagged three awards including a National Award and was the first one of it's in the history of the Kerala Forest Department,aimed at conservation of the ethnic food culture of Scheduled Tribes.
Production
Anamudi Forest Development Agency under Munnar Wildlife Division (UNDP Funded)
Crew
Script, Cinematography and Direction: Prabhu Mens Sana
Editing : Hareesh Mohan
Music : Robin Thomas
Narration: Priyaraj G
English Subtitles: Roopa Haridas
#Punarjeevanam#Marayoor#Chinnar#TribalLife
