20 Days Without Power Expose Attappadi’s Tribal Development Gaps

For nearly 20 days, residents of four tribal hamlets in Kerala’s Attappadi have been living without regular electricity, turning what began as a technical fault into a wider question over the reliability of basic services in some of the state’s most remote settlements.

Residents of Anavai, Kadukumanna, Kinattukara and Murugala said the prolonged outage has disrupted cooking, children’s studies and basic communication. They said children are struggling to attend tuition classes and study after dark, while families cannot charge mobile phones for emergencies. Only solar-powered street lights are functioning in the affected settlements.

KSEB officials at Agali said the disruption was caused by faults in underground cables passing through forest areas. Heavy rains damaged the cables, while repeated faults emerged at different locations even after repairs. Power has been restored in several other hamlets that were initially affected, but restoration work continues in the four settlements.

The crisis has renewed attention on Attappadi’s wider development challenges. The region, home mainly to the Irula, Muduga and Kurumba communities, became Kerala’s first Integrated Tribal Development Project in 1976. The State Planning Board has identified geographical remoteness as the strongest correlate of household poverty and called for improved roads and connectivity.

The government’s Critical Gap Filling Scheme recognises electricity, roads, bridges, internet connectivity, online learning, drinking water and sanitation as priority needs in tribal settlements. Yet the current outage highlights the difference between providing infrastructure and ensuring its reliability.

Education remains particularly vulnerable. The Kerala Development Report 2026 says 2.10 lakh Scheduled Tribe students in remote forest areas received transport support under Vidhyavahini between 2016-17 and 2025-26. The state also operates 175 tribal educational institutions. However, a June 2026 report said 26 tribal students at Agali Government LPS had not returned to school because their families could not afford to stitch government-provided uniforms, amid livelihood and MGNREGA wage-payment difficulties.

Healthcare has seen progress but remains challenging. 115 infant deaths were recorded in Attappadi over the decade covered by recent RTI data, although annual deaths declined from 16 in 2014 to five in 2023 and seven in 2024. The region has dedicated clinics, ambulances and medical camps.

Livelihood programmes have also expanded. Millet cultivation has been restored across 96 tribal settlements, while an ₹8-crore agricultural project covered 2,003 hectares in 2023-24. The Tribal Plus Scheme has generated more than 12 lakh person-days annually.

The present outage therefore highlights a broader last-mile governance challenge: ensuring that infrastructure reaches remote tribal communities, remains resilient during extreme weather and continues to deliver reliable services long after projects are completed.