EXCLUSIVE: A Date With The Last Woman of Injikuzhi, Centenarian Kuttiyammal
ETV Bharat treks till Injikuzhi to check on Kuttiyammal who has chosen to remain disconnected in a world which is obsessed with remaining connected.
Published : July 3, 2025 at 8:10 AM IST
|Updated : July 3, 2025 at 8:47 PM IST
By R. Manikandan
Tirunelveli: Where elephants trumpet to make their presence felt, bears and monkeys check on you, and trees sway to your mood swings, stays centenarian Kuttiyammal. The clouds are her clock and a tarpaulin her cover, and she lives carefully in a carefree world, much different and untouched from what people call modernity. Life for her is breathing in lush green forests, hearing the leaves rustle and the snakes hiss, relishing jackfruits, plucking them ripe from trees, walking barefoot to feel the soil and rain-soaked slopes.
Welcome to Kuttiyammal's home, Injikuzhi, a mountain village located about 21 kilometres from Karaiyar Dam near Papanasam in Tirunelveli district. At 100 or even more, Kuttiyammal lives life forest-size.
When ETV Bharat team decided to catch up with her, we mapped a detailed plan on how to reach the dense zones. It seemed Herculean. But as the going got tough, a three-kilometre boat ride got going. Then followed a jeep expedition uphill to 21 kilometres into the dense terrains, where we were swept off our feet seeing the beauty and sensing the serenity.
Starting from Karaiyar Dam, we lost our mobile network. The dam area, about 4 km wide, was like a sheet of silver under the rains. Waterfalls shone like molten glass, and we just kept on through rugged jeep tracks and winding trails carved by the Forest Department. The more dense the forests grew, the more slippery the slopes became, and blood-thirsty cardoons slowed our pace. After 18 km in a vehicle and another 3 km on foot, we reached Injikuzhi through rows of pepper and coconut trees.
There she was - frail and wrinkled with thick white hair. She was sporting a skirt-like wrap around, a blouse that was more loose than the life she was leading, a towel-like cover for her bosom. Seated on the front verandah of her tarpaulin-roofed hut in the heart of the Western Ghats, she did not seem too excited to meet us, for she says she feels connected to animals more than humans.
“I don’t like the sound of humans. But I cannot survive without the sound of elephants. If an elephant wants to kill you, it will. That is it. But I was born here and have grown amidst wildlife. I will die here,” says Kuttiyammal, who had drawn the attention of many people four years ago when the then-Tirunelveli Collector Vishnu met her.
He went all the way to Injikuzhi out of curiosity and was shocked to see Kuttiyammal staying in the hills all alone - no power, no phone, no television and no government aid. He was also worried hearing that she had never received old age pension under the government scheme, even though she crossed 60 years of age, four decades ago. And now she is more than 100 years old!
An arrangement was put in place immediately. But the question remained, how to deliver money to someone who lives 21 km into the wild, and whom can one entrust with this work? A postman, Christu Raja, of Karaiyar agreed. Since then, he has been making the arduous trip once a month on the unpaved road, amid a thick canopy of greenery, just to deliver her pension.
No one ever asked the postman how he felt, and none could reach the lady to understand if she was happy with the money.
“I have been here since the British came. I can tell you the time by simply watching the clouds in the sky. I don’t need a mobile phone or a TV. All I need is rice, dal, a little oil and the sound of elephants,” she says, with a wry smile.
The Western Ghats are a treasure trove of natural resources full of wonders and miracles. A hundred years ago, tribals resided here, but due to climate change and the need for education, most moved down the mountain range. Today, only three families have stayed back. Kuttiyammal stays there permanently, even though her daughter died of a snakebite years ago. Her son visits once or twice a month. But she has no complaints or regrets.
Since it is a protected area, the forest department does not allow construction, so any tribal who stays in the range stays with similar houses like that of Kuttiyammal.
Just five kilometres from Kuttiyammal’s hut lies Pothigai Hill, the point from where the sacred Thamirabarani River originates. The water is pristine, and the white foam accumulates near the rocks, while the rest travels 30 kilometres before reaching the Karaiyar Dam through the forests with a sound that is music to Kuttiyammal's ears.
In fact, she uses this water to cook -- rice, just plain rice, and no gravy. She explains how satisfying it is to eat fruits that fall from the jackfruit trees.
Ask her about anything she now desires to do and she says, "I want to vote, but I cannot travel to far off Karaiyar." Having accompanied her father to voting booths during her childhood, she reminisces about how she started voting when she became eligible. “Earlier, I used to vot,e but for the past two years, I haven’t been able to go down because I cannot walk. If the officials make arrangements, I will be happy to go down and vote," she says.
Forest Ranger Kalyani confirms that their records show only three families remain in Injikuzhi. "We never forced anyone to leave. The others moved down on their own. But Kuttiyammal refuses to leave, and we respect her decision,” she states.
In Agasthiyar Colony, Chinna Mylar, and Periy Mylar, which are located around the Karaiyar dam, there are some tribal families who have facilities like a ration shop, post office, and school located near the Karaiyar dam.
"An elephant comes here and trumpets and then goes away. I am so used to it that my heart sinks if I do not see it coming any day. I was born in this forest, so fear of wild animals does not bother me," says the lady who collects firewood from nearby places to cook. "I have never faced any problem in fetching firewood. It is plentifully available, but I cook once a day and my needs are limited," she adds.
Indigenous tribes comprising 400 people live in five places around the Karaiyar dam - Agasthiyar Colony, Chinna Mylar, Periy Mylar, Injikuzhi and Chervalaru. Of these, only two areas, Injikuzhi and Periy Mylar, are located in dense forests and have no connectivity or communication. The maximum number of families living in Chinna Mylar is about 80. Their main occupation is collecting honey from the forest and farming activities.
When we tried to ask Kuttiyammal what if an elephant attacks her, she says, "Let it. But if it dies, I will die mourning,” speaks she who lives a life, many of us long for - away from the madding crowd. We leave the place, not only with memories of a lone woman who exemplifies harmonious existence amid the abundance of nature, but with learnings that peace is 21 kilometres away from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.
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