As it grapples with alarming spread of COVID-19 along the coastal belt, the State faced the looming threat of a similar proliferation in densely populated tribal areas.
Wanton disregard for home quarantine norms and lack of institutional quarantine facilities hampered containment efforts in such areas.
Few days after a doctor of a government-run health centre in Aryanad, his family members, two ASHA workers, and a KSRTC station master tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, many people in Aryanad and Kuttichal grama panchayats have been sent into quarantine.
Those who figure in the doctor’s contact list include many tribespeople in the settlements of Kottoor, situated on the foothills of Agasthyarkoodam hill range in the Western Ghats.
Lockdown was imposed in the Aryanad grama panchayat after eight people belonging to the same cluster contracted the infection. In Kuttichal grama panchayat alone, 141 people who sought medical attention at the Aryanad primary health centre have been directed to go into quarantine. Among them, 23 people including 19 tribespeople reside in areas that come under the Kottoor forest section.
They include a ‘kavadi’ (mahout’s assistant) and four eco-development committee (EDC) members who have been working in the Elephant Rehabilitation Centre in Kappukadu, near Kottoor.
Pointing out that the employees turned up for work until Wednesday, Agasthyavanam Biological Park Deputy Wildlife Warden Satheesan N.V. said surveillance had been intensified in the rehabilitation centre.
He, however, raised concern over the inability of residents in the six tribal settlements in Kottoor to facilitate home quarantine in tribal hamlets that mostly had two-room houses. The scenario could potentially expose the community to a wave of local transmission.
Kuttichal grama panchayat president G. Manikandan said there were no institutional quarantine centre in the panchayat. While a college had been earlier used for the purpose, the resumption of classes coupled with the absence of an alternative arrangement had left the local body without a quarantine facility.
Officials involved in the containment activities also said youths often refused to pay heed to directives on physical distancing and other COVID-19 norms. The situation existed when the tribal community as such must be considered a vulnerable section owing to malnutrition and low immunity levels, according to an official.