September 28, 2022

By Ranjani Prasad
Archiving Consultant – People & Nature Collectives

Keystone has been partnering with several Community Foundations in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve (NBR) for over five years, and these are currently being coordinated and facilitated by the People and Nature Collectives team. The Global Fund for Community Foundations is a worldwide network of community groups that are being encouraged to leverage and emphasize local resources and capabilities in ways that helps shift power closer to people.

On September 28, three of the currently active Community Foundations in NBR came together to discuss ongoing work, revisit strategies and dialogue, exchange ideas and learnings, and plan for the future. The groups and their representatives who were present at the meeting were:

  • Porivarai (Aracode region, Tamil Nadu) was started in 2017 as a consequence of participatory research and action being taken up on musical traditions amongst the Irulas. A few members from the Irula villages of Aracode came together as a group to take up teaching and learning of traditional music, crafting traditional instruments, and revitalizing traditional crafts and practices. The group has diversified over the years, including beekeeping and rearing, production of organic inputs, nursery development, and farmer support amongst their other core livelihood activities. They continue to make musical instruments and other crafts such as bamboo baskets, new instruments and so on, and collaborate actively with Svaram in Auroville.
  • Thoduve (Nilambur region, Kerala) came together in 2019 with members from the Kattunayaka, Paniya, Aranadan and Muthuvan communities on issues of livelihoods, market access and fair price for Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP). In recent years, the group has forayed into research on themes of traditional knowledge and revitalization of traditional cultural expressions.
  • Asare (Punanjanur region, Karnataka) is the newest of formations and includes Sholegas, Irulas and other local communities of the region who wished to come together to address the deteriorating health conditions in the region. They set up a group farming plot for cultivating nutritious greens and medicinal plants. The harvest is distributed amongst several villages, along with community consultations and awareness meetings on addressing health and nutrition of the communities. They plan to take up other activities into revitalizing cultural traditions.


All three groups came together for lively discussions on how they go about their work and the new aspirations they continue to build for the future. The groups also received insight from each other on how they tackle challenges in their region. Discussions hinged on strategies to strengthen Community Foundations, especially on issues of funds and finances, community participation, long-term sustainability and adequate responses to community needs. We all had a great time together learning about each other’s work, played rattles and trinkets in a music circle, offered suggestions and ideas for the way forward. The meeting ended with plans to visit each other’s Foundations and continue to strengthen the #ShiftthePower movement.