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Karnataka Today newsletter: How the Soliga community is protecting its language from erasure, and more

In India, one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, around 197 languages are now endangered while over 200 languages have gone extinct in the last 50 years. If not actively preserved, the Soliga language could be in danger of extinction too, believe the community’s elders. The Soliga, also spelt Solega, are a group of indigenous, forest-dwelling people with around 40,000 of them living in Karnataka, mostly in and around B.R. Hills in Chamarajanagar district.

Like many indigenous people around the world, the Soligas’ unique traditions and culture, including language, are fast-eroding, due to changing lifestyles, exposure to the outside world, limited access to forests and their products, social hegemonies, ecosystem degradation and cultural alienation among the youth. ‘Soliga Sounds’, an alphabet chart developed by the youth of this community, could serve as the first step towards “documentation to revive” the community’s language and knowledge systems.

Multi-millionaire real estate baron D. Kupendra Reddy, in the fray for the Rajya Sabha poll from BJP-JD(S) alliance, and his associates have been charged under section 171 E (bribery) and 171 F (undue influence at an election) following a complaint to the Vidhana Soudha police on February 20.

The complaint was filed by Ravikumar P. (Ravi Ganiga), MLA of Mandya Assembly constituency. Since Mr. Reddy was the second candidate from the BJP-JD(S) alliance with not enough votes to win the election, he had resorted to wooing the Congress party members through money or pressure to vote for him, Mr. Ravi alleged.

A few employees of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have transformed a scrapped bus into a mobile canteen for their colleagues. The bus canteen is expected to be stationed at the Peenya and Yeshwantpur depots.

According to a BMTC official, the bus had covered a distance of 10,64,298 km before it was converted into a mobile canteen. The initiative was taken by four employees in the depot.

In a big push to help unemployed youth find jobs, the Karnataka government will organise a two-day job fair — Yuva Samruddhi Sammelana — from February 26 at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru.