Mudugar are

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

who live mainly in the

Attappadi Attappadi (, HQ:Agali) is a one and only tribal taluk in Kerala state covering an area of . It was carved out of Mannarkkad taluk in Palakkad district in February 2021. Attappadi Reserve Forest is a Protected areas of Kerala, protected area comp ...

valley in Palakkad district of

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 ...

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

Disambiguation

The Mudugar are often misidentified as Muthuvan or Muduvan. C. R. Sathyanarayana, an anthropologist, notes that "the nomenclature Muduvar, Muduvan, and Muthuvan (found in the lists of Census of India) represent one and the same community while the Mudugar constitute altogether a different community." In fact, Muthuvan and Muduvan are different names for a group which lives far away from the Mudugar, predominantly in the

Cardamom Hills The Cardamom Hills or Yela Mala are mountain range of southern India and part of the southern Western Ghats located in Idukki district, Kerala, India. Their name comes from the cardamom spice grown in much of the hills' cool elevation, w ...

and

Anamalai hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala (Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of wester ...

Idukki district Idukki (ഇടുക്കി; ) is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala in the southwest of the country. It is the largest district in Kerala and lies amid the Cardamom Hills of Western Ghats in Kerala. Idukki district co ...

.C.R. Sathyanarayanan "''SHARING AND COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE: TENETS OF LIVELIHOOD PURSUITS AMONG THE MUDUVANS OF ANAMALAI HILLS, SOUTH INDIA''" Anthropological Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, Mysore. retrieved 4/2/200
SHARING AND COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE

Population

Census of Kerala identified 9,903 Mudugar individuals from 2,185 families living in 88 settlements covering 67.6 km² in the state. 16 out of 21 tribal hamlets in the Attappady range are notorious for

ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

cultivation. Many tribals live in abject poverty and are easily recruited by the so-called ''ganja mafia''.Prabhakaran, G., "Plan afoot to uproot ganja from Silent Valley", The Hindu 12 March 200
uproot ganja
/ref>

Customs

Marriage is normal at age 12 to 14 years and includes many rituals and ceremonies. The wedding is usually conducted in the groom's house. The groom has to give dowry to the bride's father. There is a grand vegetarian feast on the wedding day. It is normal and acceptable for an adolescent to marry their first or second cousin or even the second spouse of a parent. Occurrence of in-breeding is up to 80%, resulting in a significantly high combined

in utero The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more fertilized eggs until bir ...

infant In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of ...

and child

mortality rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular Statistical population, population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically ...

of 38%.

Polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

is prevalent.

Decreasing child birth

Sixty five families living in Vellimudi and Sankarankudy villages in

Valparai Valparai (originally known as Poonachimalai) is a Taluk and hill station in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India. It consists of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (earlier known as Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park (IGWLS&NP) and ...

taluk in

Coimbatore district Coimbatore District is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Coimbatore is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is one of the most industrialized districts and a major textile, industrial, commercial, educa ...

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 ...

have reported no child birth in the past ten years (2000–2010). This was followed by 4 to 7 children in each family in previous years. Decrease in child birth has also been observed in Muduvar people living in Poochikottaparai, Selaiyoothu, Karumutti, Vasambukulam villages near Udumulai. While the causes leading to infertility is unknown, it will likely have a severe impact on Muduvar population.

References

{{reflist Indigenous peoples of South Asia Social groups of Kerala Social groups of Tamil Nadu South Indian communities