Bengaluru: He is not your “wild tribal” on show like in the Andamans, although he could be mistaken for one as he runs across the roads naked in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, trying to gain the attention of passing vehicles and beg for food.
The young naked tribesman has become a familiar sight in Nagarhole. Popularly known as ‘Mookam’ (dumb), he speaks to no one and is usually seen sitting or lying by the Mysore-Manantavady roadside. Subsisting on food packets thrown out of vehicles, he sleeps at nights near a tribal settlement.
Abandoned a year ago by his family, which hails from the ‘Kattunayikka’ tribe of the D B Kuppe range, all efforts to reunite him with it by fellow tribesmen and wildlife activists have proved futile so far.
“He lives inside the jungles where you find elephants and tigers. Without any food, it’s a miracle he has survived for so long. It’s inhuman to see someone roaming naked inside a forest,” says a villager of D.B. Kuppe.
An advocate from Wayanad, Sreejith P.R., who has seen Mookam wandering in the forests without a stitch of clothing on him, has brought his plight to the notice of the authorities. And now thanks to his efforts, the matter has caught the attention of the state human rights commission. Its assistant registrar has written to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife), Vinay Luthra, asking him to urgently rehabilitate Mookam and suggesting he be placed in a mental health institution nearby or in Mysore city.
The forest department, however, doesn’t seem in a hurry to help Mookam as although a fortnight has passed since it was contacted, it has taken no action. Senior officials of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve go so far as to claim they have never even seen Mookam, although he has been around in their forests for months now.
