Deforestation and environmental depletion have profoundly reshaped the social and economic foundations of India’s indigenous communities. This paper examines the interlink ages between forest degradation, resource depletion, and displacement, and their cumulative impact on the traditional economic structure of tribal women in Attappady, Kerala. Once a thriving forest ecosystem supporting Irula, Muduga, and Kurumba tribes, Attappady has undergone severe deforestation from nearly 82% forest cover in the 1950s to less than 22% by 2020. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines household surveys (n = 200), focus group discussions, and GIS-based land-use change analysis, the study reveals how ecological degradation has dismantled women’s traditional livelihood systems rooted in forest gathering, millet farming, and herbal medicine production. Statistical analysis showed that forest-based income declined from 64% in 1970 to below 8% in 2020, while dependency on wage labour and welfare schemes rose to 72%. Women’s household decision-making power has concurrently decreased, correlating with land alienation and demographic displacement. The paper argues for a gender-responsive ecological restoration model that re-centres tribal women’s traditional knowledge, access to forest resources and collective rights under the Forest Rights Act.

Deforestation, tribal women, Attappady, Kerala, livelihood transition, land alienation, environmental depletion, gender ecology.