MALAPPURAM: The only surviving hunter- gatherer primitive tribe in the country, Cholanaikkan, has got its first graduate this year. Beating all odds Mannala Vinod, 20, became the proud member of the tribal community, which is on the verge of extinction, to have graduated.
Vinod, who hails from the Manjeeri tribal settlement deep inside the forest that falls under the Karulayi range of Nilambur South forest division, scored 68 per cent in BA examination held in March from the Calicut University. Apart from climbing the academic ladder successfully, Vinod nurtures a dream to enter the civil services.
“I find the civil services the most revered option to serve the tribal population and the common people. I have just started the preparations,” he says. Vinod was the first student from the Cholanaikkan tribe who passed SSLC and Plus Two as well. It was a function convened by the forest officials in 2013 to congratulate the first Cholanaikkan student to complete Plus Two, that eventually become a breakthrough in his life.
The chief guest of the event K.R. Bhaskara Pillai, the manager of Palemad Vivekananda Arts and Science College had a reply to the apprehensions raised by officials regarding the higher studies of Vinod. They feared he might go back to the traditional jobs of his tribe like food-gathering, hunting and minor forest produce collection. Mr Pillai later took Vinod home as a new member of his family and gave admission in his college.
“For the last three years he has been with us in our family and I helped him to achieve his goals,” Mr Pillai said. Vinod would like to pursue post graduation in economics, the subject he is more interested, apart from preparing for the civil services. “I prefer to join PG in Thiruvananthpuram or Kozhikode that would help me to concentrate more on preparations for the civil service examinations,” he said.
“I am interested in mingling with and learning more about cultures and lifestyles at various places. My school days at various places of the state have contributed much to this. I hope this would help me to grow as well,” Vinod concludes.
