Rare mat made in the Ghats vies for a special tag

Only three tribes are skilled in making Kannadipaya, a thin and polished mat

It is a mat made of a unique variety of creeper bamboo, so smooth and polished like a mirror. And it is so thin that when rolled, it fits inside a hollow bamboo. Kannadipaya is not an easy product to make and for long, the craftsmanship was confined to three tribes in the Athirappilly-Edamalakkudy belt of the Western Ghats.

The skill was on the verge of disappearing, when a decade ago, the Idukki district panchayat launched measures to revive it. The Plaplavu Unma Scheduled Tribe Bamboo Crafts Unit is now one of the main producers of Kannadipaya. Recently, efforts were launched to fetch the product Geographical Indication (GI) tag through training programmes for the new generation of tribespeople.