Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

e replaced by other cash crops primarily coconut and areca. On the coast there were a
few Palmyra trees. Ginger, gingelly and other intermediate crops were grown for local
consumption, and at the best sale in Calicut. This meant that under the British rule, the
biodiversity of the region could be said to have declined.
What about the prospects of Coconut and areca? We have already seen the demand for
fiber products. Coir making was a labor intensive cottage industry, performed on the
households, and they used the natural facilities available in the region for immersing
fiber. There is a place called Brahma swam in Thenhippalam which was earlier a paddy
field, but abandoned because of the problems of water-logging and used for the
immersing of fiber. Another area is Balathirutti in Kadalundi River, where the entire
population used to live by immersing. But this form of cottage industry never progressed
to the level of even a manufactory, and remained as a form of subsistence. There were
contractors who collected the finished fiber product and sold in the marts of Calicut and
Beypore. The water transport in the area, of which we mentioned in our discussion on
walking, helped the transport of fiber products, which was collected from every kadavu.
But the other possibility of coconut and Palmyra, toddy tapping was never seriously
followed. Apparently the Thiyya community of the region did tap Coconut and Palmyra
trees, but they ran into cultural problems. Liquor was strictly forbidden among the
Muslims, toddy included in it. The upper caste land lord families also did not consume
toddy (except surreptitiously, of course), which meant that toddy could be used for
household consumption among the tappers and other laborers, and hence, cannot grow
into a major industry as in other parts of Kerala. Otherwise, the toddy had to be
transported and taken to distant areas, which is not feasible and very costly in the case of
toddy. Arrack was also distilled and sold, primarily by women, and once again, cultural
prohibitions resulted in its gradual decline. Betel and areca, apart from their medicinal
value, depended on another cultural trait, the habit of betel chewing among the people.