Departures of note

Cheruvayal Raman, born Thalakkara Cheriya Raman on June 6, 1952, was a tribal farmer from the Kurichiya community in Wayanad district, Kerala. He began farming at age ten and turned down a government job in 1969 to devote himself to agriculture, cultivating dozens of traditional rice varieties on his three-acre farm. He became widely known as a 'living paddy gene bank' for protecting more than 45 indigenous varieties, including the aromatic Gandhakashala and red-grained Thondi, and for distributing seeds to farmers and conservationists. He promoted chemical-free, sustainable farming and his farm served as a learning space for students and visitors. His conservation work earned him the Genome Saviour Award in 2016 and the Padma Shri in 2023, and he represented Kerala's farming community at an international biodiversity conference in Hyderabad in 2011. He died on October 14, 2026, at age 74.