151(AS) Matte alli ma:muli pra:ṇigaḷu sigutte?
(And you fi nd the usual animals there?)
(BG) Ka:nina oḷage kaḍave ade, ka:ḍemme ade, matte bekku ade, kotti ade...
ko:tigaḷu irtave... a:ga matte ku:randi, muḷḷandi ade, matte handi ade...
ishṭella ka:nina oḷage ade. Adu ka:ninalliye ira:ku. I: ka:ḍiga bandale
barakka sa:dya illa.
(Inside the ka:nu you fi nd sambhar, gaur, civets, there are monkeys, and
then mouse deer, porcupines, pangolins, all these are inside the ka:nu.
The have to remain inside the ka:nu. It’s not possible for them to come to
this [open, dry] forest.)
This extract, combined with information from the fi rst elicitation session, shows
that the label ‘ evergreen forest ’ fails to capture the extensive ecological knowledge
that the Solega have about the entity called ka:nu ka:ḍu. ‘ Evergreen forest ’ simply
does not take account, for example, of the fact that “few animals (mammals) like to
live here”, and that the ones that do, “leave during the rainy season, because of the
cold”. The Solega also avoid living in these parts, for much the same reasons. Solega
perceptions of the ka:nu ka:ḍu ranged from the mundane and unsurprising, (“it is
always cold and dark here, because the sunlight doesn’t reach all the way to the
ground”, or “there are rivers here with water year-round, and so the forest is always
green”), to detailed species lists of the fl ora that can be found in this forest type:
Extract VII (S)
(BG) Ka:ninalli ha:le mara ade, thuruve mara ade, kakkilu, bikkilu, bella:ḍe,
ku:ma:u~, kende, soravilu, aravilu, hebbe:u... aravilu kende maradalli
je:na:de.
(In the ka:nu , there’s the ha:le (?) tree, the thuruve tree ( Ligustrum per-
rottettii ), etc...there are bees/ honey on the aravilu (?) and kende
( Elaeocarpus tuberculatus ) trees.)
(MRM) Nalavattu aivattu je: nu baratte onde maradalli.
(Forty or fi fty colonies come to a single tree.)
(BG) Ne:ri, ne:ri mara,a:ga matte, i: ta:re mara ondu ille. A ka:nu oḷage e:va
ja:ga:dalli uve ta:re mara huṭṭa:dille. A:mele, koḷamada mara, mi:nada
mara...
(The ne:ri tree, and then, the ta:re ( Terminalia bellirica ) tree is the only
one missing. There isn’t a single ta:re tree growing anywhere inside the
ka:nu ka:ḍu. And then, the koḷama (?) tree, the mi:na tree ( Myristica
dactyloides )...)
As this excerpt shows, BG not only names several species of tree that are typical
of a ka:nu ka:ḍu , but also informs me about a particular species (the ta:re ) that is
never found in this forest type. This information was offered spontaneously, and
shows that for BG, at least, the concept of ka:nu ka:ḍu is a very precise one.
5.3 Landscape/Forest Types in Solega