Mudugar

Mudugar indigenous people live in the Attappadi valley in Palghat district of Kerala, South India. Some Mudugar also live in Cuddalore district, Nilgiri District and Dharmapuri District of Tamil Nadu.

Disambiguation

The Mudugar are often misidentified as Muthuvan or Muduvan, even in the Census of India List of Scheduled Tribes.
In fact, Muthuvan and Muduvan are one and the same and live far away, predominantly in the Cardamom Hills and Anamalai hills of Idukki district. ,

indigenous people are also loosely referred to as Adivasis, tribals, tribes people, Scheduled Tribe or just hill people.

Population

Census of Kerala identified 9,903 Mudugar individuals from 2,185 families living in 88 settlements covering 67.6 km² in the state.

The main traditional occupation of the Mudugars is collection and trading of non-timber forest products like honey, spices, herbs, medicines and wild foods.

Many of the Mudugar and Irula now work as day laborers and porters. Some work for the Forest Department in Silent Valley National Park as forest guards and visitor guides. There is a plan to employ 50 additional men from these 21 tribal settlements as forest guards for Rs.500/man/month.