Kerala’s Churulipetti holds remnants of Sikkari Kuttiyamma’s settlement

IDUKKI: Uttarakhand’s famed Jim Corbett National Park and hunter-turned-naturalist Jim Corbett who lived there are known to many. But, a woman hunter and the remnants of a community she helped set up in a wildlife sanctuary in Kerala way back in the 1960s remain pretty much little known.

Churulipetti village inside the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Idukki is the location where Kerala’s first woman hunter – Sikkari Kuttiyamma – set up a settlement and lived for nearly three decades. Although around 42 families that stayed in Churulipetti were evicted by the government in 1993, the courageous stories of Kuttiyamma alias Thresya Thomas, who protected the settlers from wild animals, and the remnants of her sophisticated farming practices would surprise any visitors to the sanctuary.