The Kadar are a tribal community or indigenous community in India, a designated Scheduled Tribe in the states of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. They are an aboriginal tribe whose traditional way of life has been based on

hunting and gathering A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...

. They used to stay in the Annamalai Hills in the Western Ghats, but moved to other locations over the years. They specialized in collecting honey, wax, sago, arrowroot, cardamom, ginger, and umbrella sticks for trade with merchants from the plains. The People of

Paraiyar Paraiyar, Parayar or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah and Paree) is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka. Etymology Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who w ...

Community claims that Kadar is part of Paraiyar who lives and take care of forest and forest lives. In the early twentieth century, the Kadars used to work with forest officials to take care of forest and guide royal hunting parties in the princely state of Cochin. Currently, many of the tribe members have moved to areas closer to the plains and urban areas.

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* Ethnic groups in India Scheduled Tribes of India Scheduled Tribes of Kerala Indigenous peoples of South Asia Scheduled Tribes of Tamil Nadu Scheduled Tribes of Karnataka {{India-ethno-stub

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