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By Alok Ranjan: Thirty-one tribals belonging to ‘Hakki-Pikki’ from Karnataka are stranded in Sudan, where violent clashes between a powerful paramilitary force and the country’s armed forces are going on. These people belong to a semi-nomadic tribal group.
The Hakki-Pikki do not have enough food supplies since the clashes began this weekend. The Congress slammed the BJP-led Centre and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, claiming they had not initiated action to evacuate them.
The Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority has said that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been alerted about the condition of the tribals in Sudan and asked the stranded people not to leave their current location and to heed the advice of the Indian Embassy there.
India is closely coordinating with other nations to protect the safety and security of its citizens in Sudan.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had spoken with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the situation in Sudan.
ALSO READ | Mapping the Sudan crisis through satellite images
WHO ARE THE HAKKI-PIKKIS?
According to SPPEL (Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages) established by Ministry of Education (Government of India), ‘Hakki-Pikki’ is one of the major tribal communities in Karnataka.
In Kannada, the word ‘Hakki’ stands for ‘bird’ and ‘Pikki’ stands for the verb ‘to catch’. Therefore, the community is known as the ‘bird catcher,’ which is their traditional occupation.
The Hakki-Pikki community migrated from the northern India population, which is about 8,414 (2001 census), and is found in Karnataka.
According to the 2011 census, the population of Hakki-Pikki is 11,892. After their trade of bird hunting was outlawed, they were rehabilitated in the 1970s.
They began doing odd jobs like working in fields and sharpening knives and sickles by riding around towns on bicycles after bird-hunting was banned. They also sell the herbal remedies they extract.
The Hakki-Pikkis are said to be a matriarchal group.
DISTRICTS WHERE THEY RESIDE AND LANGUAGE THEY SPOKE
The population is predominantly found in Shivamogga, Davanagere and Mysuru districts of Karnataka.
Despite being surrounded by Dravidian languages and living in southern India, the community speaks an Indo-Aryan language. Their mother tongue was designated ‘Vaagri’ by scholars.
They communicate in ‘Vaagri’ at home but speak in Kannada when conducting daily business.
UNESCO has listed ‘Vaagri’ as one of the endangered languages.
KNOWN FOR SELLING TRADITIONAL MEDICINES
In Karnataka, the Hakki-Pikkis are renowned for their indigenous medicines. The community resided in the dense jungles for a long time and created its own plant and herb-based medicine systems.
The Hakki-Pikkis have traditional medical knowledge that is in demand in several African countries. Therefore, community members have been travelling to the continent for the last many years.
HAKKI-PIKKIS WERE IN LIMELIGHT EARLIER
In 2021, the Hakki-Pikki tribes came into the limelight after they survived the Covid-19 pandemic. They encountered considerable challenges during the lockdown induced due to the Covid-19 crisis.
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