At Chinnar, relish finger millet biriyani

IDUKKI: Now, the visitors to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) will get a chance to taste the traditional finger millet biriyani.
It was after a prolonged effort of CWS officials that they managed to prepare various types of millet biriyanis, said CWS assistant wildlife warden P M Prabhu. Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies(KITTS) has conducted a one-and-half-month programme at Chinnar to train workers.A special camp was conducted at Alampetty Ethnic Café and Chinnar Vanajyothsna restaurant where the workers of CWS were taught the preparation of these special dishes from ragi, thina, chama and kattu chakka.
“For the first time , the workers successfully prepared millet and koovaraku biriyani. These special types of biriyanis will now be available for visitors who come to the wildlife sanctuary,” said Prabhu.
“The new variety biriyanis will be prepared using traditional tribal food products. We hope the new project will encourage the farming and sale of traditional tribal products and will provide more income to them,” said the official.
During the cookery camp, over ten varieties of finger millet products newly developed, which include ragi laddu, ragi pakkavada, thina laddu, chama laddu, ragi murukk, thina athirasam, jackfruit pickle, pakkavada, jack fruit seed poori and jackfruit seed chapathi. The products will be available at Alampetty, Karimutty and Chinnar eco-tourism centres, said Prabhu.
Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in the rain shadow region in the eastern slope of Western Ghats. The area is diverse in ecosystems and rich in ethnic cultural heritage. and a well-known repository of medicinal plants