From nunnery to the wild forests

KOTTAYAM: She wanted to be a nun serving the church, but fate made her a hunter of wild animals in the forests of Idukki in the 60s.

Thressia Thomas, 84, popularly known as ‘Shikari Kuttiyamma, has no regrets as she recounted her hunting days to Deccan Chronicle at her house at Anakkal in Kanjirapally where she is resting after suffering a  fall and fracturing her hands.

She recalled that at first she went for training to New Delhi as a nun, but she came back to support her family,  including her younger siblings, who were hunters by profession.

They were residing on the border of Chinnar forests from 1950 onwards after they relocated from their native place of Edmattam in Pala.

When she returned from Delhi, she too became a hunter as in those days hunting was allowed. She shot down even bisons and tigers in her prime time and sold the meat to buyers, including  forest officials,  after drying the  meat in the forests.  

“I began by hunting small animals like deer and pigs and gradually moved to bigger animals such as bison. I  got only low  price for the meat,” she said.

“My younger ones too came with me. When the forest reserve was formed in the late 1970s, hunting was prohibited and we stopped our sport,” she said.

Thomas, a native of Idukki and a hunter by profession, was her husband.  She has a son, Joseph, who is doing fertilizer business in Kanjirapally.