COONOOR: The Indigenous Badagar Alliance (IBA) on Friday expressed happiness over the inclusion of ‘Badagas’, the largest indigenous social group in the Nilgiris district, in the database of the World’s Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations Mountain Partnership (UNMP).
The move is the first step towards improving the lives of people living in mountains and protecting mountainous environments. Handing over a copy of the UN document to Collector Innocent Divya, the IBA President Ayyaru said it is a big recognition for the group which has more than five lakh population in the district.
The document identified the community as “traditional buffalo herders” who are showing a strong inclination towards organic farming, Ayyaru said. On Badaga language, the document said that it belongs to Dravidian languages’ family.
Founded in 2002, the UNMP has over 400 partners. The partners are currently preparing an international database of indigenous people and a global map to identify indigenous and local mountain communities and places of residence.
The community was included in the database after The Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC), a local research body with nearly four decades of work, raised a request with the global body with necessary evidence and documents.