Tribal Nutrition Awareness Campaign and STC (Scheduled Tribe Component) project in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve launched

22 December 2022, Sathyamangalam

ICAR – Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore in collaboration with Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), conducted the ‘Tribal Nutrition Awareness Campaign’ and launched its STC (Scheduled Tribe Component) project in Sathyamangalam, Erode today.

Inaugurating the campaign, Shri R. Kirubashankar IFS, Deputy Director, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve & District Forest Officer, Sathyamangalam appreciated the efforts of ICAR-SBI in identifying ‘malnutrition’ as a serious issue among the tribals of STR and organizing a series of awareness campaigns to address this problem. He urged the tribals belonging to the adopted settlements, to make full use of the Institute’s expertise. The initiative of the Institute in providing radio sets as well as the’ daily programme schedule’ to the tribals is a laudable effort, he added.

Dr. G.Hemaprabha, Director of ICAR – Sugarcane Breeding Institute in her Presidential address, said that the tribals should be aware of the fact that education alone would pave way for their economic development and prosperity. Listing out the career opportunities available for the tribal children, she mentioned that school-going children, girls, in particular, should not be undernourished. She exhorted that millets should again find a regular place in the tribal diet as they have high fibre, protein and antioxidant contents. In his

Introductory remarks, Dr. D. Puthira Prathap, Principal Scientist and Nodal Officer, STC project mentioned that about 450 tribals belonging to the settlements of Ramaranai, Bejalatti, Thadasalatti, Ittarai, Maavanatham & Galithimbam in Talamalai region and Bathripadugai in Kadambur region of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve will be benefitted by the project. Among these villages, all households of Bathripadugai settlement are being supplied with Beehive boxes, as an experimental measure, to avoid human-animal conflict, since studies from Sri Lanka have shown that the sound of Indian honeybees scares elephants away. Besides conducting awareness campaigns in these tribal settlements, ICAR-SBI will be distributing farm tools, household items such as radio sets, seed kits for setting up & maintaining a nutrition garden, areca nut seedlings, liquid jaggery, and millet seeds to these tribals, he added.

Scientists from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University & ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute and officials from The Tamil Nadu forest department spoke during the event, besides the tribal heads.

(Source: ICAR – Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore)