Lakshmi Kutty Amma, a 75-year-old tribal woman from Kallar Forest area at Thiruvananthapuram, is a poet, poison healer and a teacher at Folklore Academy. She lives in small palm leaf hut in a tribal settlement at Kallar, 43 kms away from Thiruvananthapuram. Earlier, she was an ordinary woman with the name Lakshmikutty, but now, she is “Padma Shri Lakshmi Kutty Amma.”

This wonder woman, also known as ‘Grandmother of Jungle,’ has received the country’s fourth highest civilian honour Padma Shri Award for her breakthrough in practising traditional medicine. Over the decades, Lakshmikutty has saved hundreds of lives with her astute knowledge in herbal medicine. She can prepare over five hundred herbal medicines out of her memory predominantly for snake and insect bites, which got her the civilian honour, Padma Shri.

For practising traditional medicines over 50 years, she also received Kerala Government’s Naattu Vaidya Ratna Award in 1995. She obtained knowledge in traditional treatment of poison from her mother who was a midwife.

The Department Of Forest Kerala has now decided to compile a book, based on her knowledge in treating poison, since neither Lakshmikutty nor her mother made a written record of the medicinal plants and their uses. She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Indian Biodiversity Congress award in 2016.

She also possesses abundant knowledge in Sanskrit, which remains evident in her satirical poems and writings that were published by DC books.

Blog By Arya Prasad