SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF TRIBAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE WESTERN GHATS

Abstract

The Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri is a mountain range that covers an area of 140,000 square km parallel to the Western coast of the Indian Peninsula .It traverses the states of Kerala , Tamilnadu , Karnataka ,Goa ,Maharashtra, and Gujarat. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is one of the eight hottest hot spots of biological diversity in the world. It covers 5000 species of flowering plants ,139 mammals species ,508 birds species, and 179 amphibian species ,many discovered species live in the Western Ghats . At least 325 globally threatened species occur in this region. The region glitches many anthropogenic intervention like illegal mining, the establishment of human settlement and deforestation etc. From a Historical view, the Western Ghats is the home for tribes > 50 types of tribes are living in the Western Ghats from the anecdotal period. The majority of the tribal are largely dependent on forests for their livelihood. After the implementation of the forest policy , the tribal livelihood status really worsened in the Western Ghats , they are unable to meet the daily requirement of recommended food intake >2500 Kcl. After post-independence (73years ) of India many development programs are implemented in the tribal area for improvement of livelihood status , but as of calendar date they are facing many problems like economic instability , lack of literacy , lower level of quality of life and not politically empowered . In this context , in the interest of policy implication at the tribal area , the present study was undertaken to study the socioeconomic status and spatial distribution of tribal in the Western Ghats. This study practically helps the policymakers , planners of the policy, and researcher scholars to extrapolate the tribal settlement through the geo-spacing tag of tribal , socio-economic level, Knowledge and attitude of Conservation of Western Ghats at the population level .