Here's How An Isolated Tribal Hamlet In Wayanad Is Keeping COVID At Bay

Raghu is from Parappanpara and is among the 60 Cholanayaka people who live in the most isolated and difficult-to-reach tribal settlement in Wayanad district which comes under Moopainad panchayat.

¡°We have been under quarantine 24x7 for decades, even before the advent of the coronavirus," he said, as per The New Indian Express.

While Wayanad has seen 4318 positive cases in the second wave, not one person in the settlement has tested positive.

Express

"Flu our biggest disease"

"Let alone Covid, I don't remember anyone from among us going to a hospital for treatment. We have our own herbal medicine in the forest. In fact, flu is our biggest disease," he added.

"I noticed rashes on the forehead of a Cholanayaka kid. When I asked the tribal chieftain about that, he smiled and replied that they had their own medicine for that," said Rajesh K, the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority.

"Wild jumbos destroy their huts frequently. When the forest department built a water tank for Cholanayakas, the pachyderms shattered it the very next day. Yet, neither the tribe nor the elephants treat the other as an enemy. They co-exist," he added.

Wayanad.net

This hamlet has kept the virus at bay and pretty well too.

"They are leading a contented and healthy life. Even deliveries happen inside the hamlet. They feed on tubular crops, vegetable cultivation and fish in the Chaliyar river. Once in a month or so, they come out of the forest to the uphill Kadachikkunnu to sell the honey collected and to take the ration provided by the government," said Integrated Tribal Development Project district officer AC Cheriyan.

This is really unique and it's one of the few places in the country that does not need to be COVID free because it was never infected in the first place.