Livelihood of the tribal people in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) has started improving, thanks to the coir making employment initiative taken by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) along with NGO Udumalai Environmental Society.
As many as 20 tribal people from Karattupathy settlement in Amaravathy forest range have been getting coir making training from last week near Crocodile Park.
The training is in creating mats, varieties of flowers, bouquets and toys, and making earrings, chains and medals. The price of these goods is between Rs 100 and Rs 400. The representatives of TRIFED will transport the fibre load to the training spot, sourced from in and around Pollachi.
This is the first initiative of its kind in the ATR reserve and works without affecting the environment.
TRIFED, which is part of the Union Government, is providing Rs 100 as a stipend to each tribal involved in the training. The stipend is credited in their bank accounts by the members of Udumalai Environmental Society.