From the year 2000, we started taking our high school students to the Kaigal Conservation Centre (KCC) of Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI) lying on the fringes of the Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh to introduce them to bio-diversity study and the communities living there.
The first two years were small, friendly steps to establish a connection with the local people, visiting their villages, spending time to learn from them about their land, their culture and their traditional livelihoods. The Yanadhi knowledge holders guided us through the forest, helped us document the vegetation diversity and generously shared with us their deep understanding of the ecosystem. It was obvious to us that the communities will benefit immensely if provided with facilities for education of the children and livelihood opportunities for their people.
Early days at the Kaigal Conservation Centre
In 2002 we therefore established the Kaigal Education and Environment Program (KEEP) of KFI in KCC to initiate conservation work, provide training to the youth and women for acquiring skills for a livelihood and start schools for the children of the marginalised communities.
Interested individuals from the local communities were involved in the conservation activity from the very beginning. Forest and farm based bio-resources were identified for developing products for livelihood generation. Research was carried out for value addition of the raw materials. It was essential that we were able to develop simple, ecologically sound, affordable, replicable processes for value addition given the fact that they had hardly any skill required to run an enterprise. At first a few local youth from the community were involved and the first few products were Honey, Kalimbi-in-brine and Kalimbi pickle.
This endeavor blossomed from a self-help group of men and women to a community-run enterprise by the year 2010 when Kaigal Trust was established. The early years of the Trust were focused on increasing and developing a wide range of products, acquiring simple machinery and also training more women in different activities. They were also trained in craft skills such as tailoring, macrame’, hand embroidery and so on. The enterprise grew.
The Kaigal Trust in the year 2021 makes more than 60 different products under different categories with a sales turnover of around Rs.30 Lakhs. This has ensured better income for the members of the team and better quality of life. In addition, this enterprise has also been directly benefitting tribal collectors and marginal farmers who supply the raw materials.