Deep inside Palani Hills in Kodaikanal taluk live a group of tribespeople who could have a livelihood boost due to a bunch of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) applications filed by a faculty member of Mother Teresa Women’s University.

A. Usha Raja Nanthini, Professor and Head, Biotechnology Department, has filed 150 separate applications under industrial design for jewellery made with naturally-occurring seeds. The project, funded by Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST), aims to train the tribespeople in jewellery-making and help them market their products through a website.

Five tribal women have come together to establish a company, Tulir, and registered it as a micro, small and medium enterprise. The website is being designed and will sell honey, nutmeg, lichens, benzoin resin (sambrani), and myrobalan (kadukkai), besides jewellery.

Ms. Usha said, “They live in 15-20 hamlets spread over Palani Hills and their population according to the 2011 Census was around 6,000. The children rarely go to school and they live a simple life collecting non-timber forest produce.”

While being on a project to analyse different species of eucalyptus for anti-fungal properties, Ms. Usha and her team came across this habitation. Seeds of eucalyptus, adenanthera, coix and corymbia found in the area were colourful and tough, and they came in various sizes and shapes. “An idea sparked: if we designed jewellery and taught them how to make them, they could sell the products for a living.”

A few prototypes of the jewellery designs were submitted to the TNSCST in August 2023 and the Council approved the project in January 2024. Then began the tough task of bringing the villagers together. “They were shy and would not entertain outsiders. So, we went through the tribal headman who helped us getting a few people,” Ms. Usha elaborated.

The training for the villagers began in January, and she filed the IPR applications through the IPR cell set up by the Council at the university in March. “The idea of setting up these cells is to protect our intellectual property and use them for the benefit of the people,” said S. Vincent, Member Secretary, TNSCST. The council has already set up 40 such cells.

Fifty villagers from Pethuparai Bharathi Annanagar and Pallangi-Kombai hamlets have been trained in jewellery-making, Ms. Usha said. As an aside, members of a women’s self help group from Vadakounji and Vadajaraparai were trained in apiculture (beekeeping), in collaboration with sisters from Society of Daughters of Mary Immaculate (DMI).

The people living in these hamlets largely belonged to the Pazhiyar and Puliyar tribes and have been eking out a living, collecting lichens, soap nuts, gooseberry, honey and other non-timber forest produce and selling them to intermediaries for a pittance, Ms. Usha said. “The place is so remote that the nearest bus stop is 29 kilometres away. Very few have studied till high school,” she added.