Tamil Nadu

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Good prevails in vibrant hues at the Kulasai Dussehra

Kulasai Dussehra, the festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil is celebrated lavishly in the village of Kulasekharapatnam, in Tamil Nadu’s Thooththukudi district. Village Square presents the celebrations in images.

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Caution: Reading this will make you crave paani-puri

With no background in making puris for the delectable pani puri or in running a business, a group of women in rural Tamil Nadu become successful micro-entrepreneurs.

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A rural oasis for youth with intellectual disabilities

A residential facility in rural Tamil Nadu, working towards self-sustainability, equips youth with intellectual disabilities with life and vocational skills, besides giving them curricular education.

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Erratic rainfall clouds butterfly migration in Tamil Nadu

Declining butterfly migration in Tamil Nadu has worried environmentalists as these insects play a crucial role in pollination and pest control, besides serving as indicators to temperature changes and pollution levels.

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Add this tourism village in Kerala to your itinerary

The recent recognition of Kanthalloor in Kerala’s Idukki district as one of India’s top five tourism villages exemplifies its commitment to ecological sustainability, agricultural prosperity, and responsible tourism.

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The Irula tribe of Tamil Nadu and their sacred stones

The Irulas worship deceased family members by erecting ancestral stones. The waterworn pebbles and sculptures represent the connection between the living and their forebears.

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These kids are bringing back house sparrows to their village

The children of Kulathupalayam village in Tamil Nadu, which is situated near a bird sanctuary, are using shoeboxes to bring back house sparrows that had been missing for years due to urbanisation.

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This transwoman empowers children through education

Raised by a single mother, Smiley Thabu, a 31-year-old transwoman, strives to give children and youth from marginalised communities near Chennai a boost in life by giving supplementary lessons and skill development programmes.

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Tamil Nadu villagers take it upon themselves to build road

With no redressal of their decades-long request, Kottur Malai villagers pool money and labour to lay a six-kilometre mud road to their village.

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India’s most haunted villages

From ghostly apparitions to hair-raising tales, this list reveals the country's supernatural secrets.

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Kulasai Dasara comes alive with devotion and delight

Dussehra takes a riveting form at Kulasekharapatnam village of Tamil Nadu, where thousands of devotees, wearing body paint and costumes to look like different deities, gather at the Sri Mutharamman Temple to celebrate Kulasai Dasara.

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Coexisting with reptiles

Situated along Tamil Nadu's East Coast Road (ECR), just a stone's throw from Mahabalipuram, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust is India's foremost herpetology centre and perhaps the only reptilian zoo.

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Nutmeg spices up income of Tamil Nadu coconut farmers

A newly formed farmer producer organisation has freed a group of nutmeg farmers in Tamil Nadu from the clutches of middlemen and exploitative buyers, boosting their income and ushering positivity.

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‘Collaboration is key to protect water bodies’

We need to look back at our ancestors to learn the best practices about river and water conservation in India, says Shri Krishna of Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI).

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Nature’s gifts to Tamil Nadu temple town

On this World Environment Day, these pictures from villages surrounding the temple town of Srivilliputtur in Tamil Nadu show the beautiful beings that live among us, urging us to protect them and their habitat.

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Bridal jewellery made with dried palm leaf?

Karthkeyan quit his job as design engineer and became a successful organic farmer with wife Neelaveni. The duo now makes eye-catching ornaments and showpieces from Palmyra leaf.

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Shrimply Tamil Nadu

Does the sight of shrimp make you hungry? This photo walkthrough shows how shrimp farming is reshaping the environment, livelihoods and social relations in a coastal village of Tamil Nadu.

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Alu Kurumba art depicts the tribes’ connection with nature

In the remote forests of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, one man tries to keep the art of the Alu Kurumbas tribe alive despite the impact of a cultural shift.

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What’s Christmas in southern Tamil Nadu without these traditional treats?

In the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, Christmas celebration is incomplete without mundhiri kothu and vivikkam – two traditional sweets with names that may sound strange to others.

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Where waste ‘lights up’ villages

While waste disposal is a huge problem – moved from neighbourhoods to dump yards – villages in Tamil Nadu are turning their wet waste into biogas to generate electricity.