OOTY: While the Toda and Kota dialects of the Nilgiris tribes are now considered as endangered and heading towards extinction as per the report of the census directorate amid just few thousand people speaking them now, tribal leaders believe that their dialect will survive. Both the Toda and Kota tribes are one of the primitive tribes in the country and native to the Nilgiris. Stating that the population of Kota tribes who live in about seven settlements in the Nilgiris, is about 2,500 to 3,000 now, Ms. Neej Saraswathi, district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Primitive Tribes Association, said that no one could explain why the Kota population was low and yet nearly stable all these centuries.
“From time immemorial the Kota tribes have been living in the Nilgiris. Their population was less than 2,000 about two decades ago. Now, it has shown a good increase,” she pointed out. She said that the pressures of the modern world have not affected the dialect of the ‘Kotas’. However small their population is, the dialect rules the everyday life of the ‘Kotas’ and it will thrive though it lacks a script, she said.
Mr. K.M.Alwas, secretary of the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association (NAWA) who is also a prominent Toda tribal leader, said that the population of the Toda tribes has increased to around 1,500 now from below thousand in the past. “No one knows what happened in the past to check population growth. It could be health and other reasons that played havoc with the population of the Toda tribes. Though now-a-days Toda children study in English medium schools, the ‘Toda’ dialect rules the roost in family and community affairs of the Todas. The dialect has survived the test of time and will continue to thrive,” he asserted.
