The Kani people of the Agasthyamalai hills

Sample articleIllustrative text, not published research

The Kani, also called Kanikkar, live in the forests of the Agasthyamalai hills, which straddle the Tamil Nadu–Kerala border at the southern end of the Western Ghats. Their settlements lie in and around protected areas on both sides, including the Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Plant knowledge, and who benefits

Kani knowledge of medicinal plants became widely known in the 1990s, when researchers at the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Kerala developed a herbal formulation from arogyapacha, a plant the Kani use. A share of the licence fee went to a trust set up by Kani families. The arrangement is often cited as an early example of benefit-sharing, and has drawn criticism over who was included and who decided.

“Knowledge held in common became, for a time, a licence with a price.”

Land and legal standing

The Kani are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe. Under the Forest Rights Act they can claim rights to land and forest produce, but living inside protected areas brings rules on movement, collection and building that can cut across those claims.

We set out what the record shows about Kani land claims on the Tamil Nadu side, and where community members describe something different from what the files say.