South Indian Tribals Get Empowered By Making Animal Replicas From Lantana
Helped by The Real Elephant Collective, they make replicas of elephants and other animals
Published : September 17, 2025 at 2:18 PM IST
By Natesh Kumar
Nilgiris: Tribals of Kodamula village of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu have turned lantana, a weed, into an enterprise. They are making replicas of elephants as well as other animals with this weed. These tribals were earlier involved in the vocation of collecting firewood from the forest. The new craft of utilising the weed has brought a lot of financial relief to their stressed households.
"We used to do whatever we could get our hands on. But now we are relieved. Earlier, we could only make ends meet by carrying firewood from the forest, but now we are working from home with our children. We don't face any threats from wild animals. Our children are going to school because of this work," said a woman from the village.
The art of making animal replicas is now very popular. Lantana is not an elephant-friendly weed and is the reason for the migration of elephants as it has led to the shortage of food for the pachyderms. The Forest Department has been involved in the removal of the weed. An organisation 'The Real Elephant Collective' has been involved in making chairs and tables from lantana. It has now taken up the initiative of making miniatures that has drawn international attention.
When the ETV Bharat team went to Kodamula village, the women were busy working in a tin shed chopping lantana sticks, twisting them with the help of iron rods and joining them with nails to give them the shape of elephants.
They hesitantly related, "For the past few years, we have been working as labourers in the nearby tea estates. We faced problems there as we fell prey to fraudsters and there was also the threat of the wild animals. We continued working under compulsion but our lives have changed now." Presently over 30 women from the village are involved in this enterprise.
"This work provides us with sufficient income. Since we work from home, we are able to take care of our children," they added.
Ranjani, who works with The Real Elephant Collective, disclosed, "We started this organisation 10 years ago. Initially, we made just five elephant replicas with 10 people and sent them to England. The effort was successful and later these 10 people trained others and now there are 300 people working with us."
She went on to explain, "We first removed this weed growing in the Mudumalai forest and made chairs and tables from it by involving the locals. We were amased by their artistic skills. We wanted to take the problems faced by the elephants because of lantana to the global level with 3D replicas. We created realistic replicas that are now finding place in from the London Palace to New York. Besides,removing lantana, we have also created a livelihood for the tribals."
She said that presently five tribes including Pettakurumba, Bania, Kattunayaka and Solika are involved in this work. "Initially, we drew elephant figures by hand but now we use 3D technology using a computer. Our replicas range from 3 feet to 10.5 feet in height. We also make replicas of wild cattle and goats using lantana," she added.
These replicas are exported to foreign countries and fetch good prices. A one-foot-high sculpture costs up to Rs one lakh while the bigger ones cost up to Rs 10 lakh. The Kodamula tribals say that it takes from 10 days to a month to make the replicas.
Tharch Tekhetra, who founded The Real Elephant Collective disclosed, "We did research on elephant-human conflict and found that the main reason for the elephants leaving the forest was lack of food resulting from the spread of lantana that covered 30% to 40% of the forest. We are removing lantana from about 500 hectares every year and making replicas to generate income for the tribals. The processed lantana is taken to tribal villages in Kerala and Karnataka for making the replicas that yields a revenue of up to Rs. 2.50 crore per year for the tribals ."
