Lakshmikutty

Lakshmikutty, born in 1943, is a tribal woman of the Kaani community from the Kallar forest area at Vithura in Kerala, India, known as a poison healer who practices traditional medicine. She has practiced for more than fifty years and is said to remember more than five hundred varieties of medicine. She received the Kerala Government's Naattu Vaidya Ratna award in 1995 and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, for her work in traditional medicine. She also writes poems and plays, knows Sanskrit, and teaches at the Kerala Folklore Academy; she gives lectures on natural medicine at institutions across the southern states, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of her contributions in a Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast. People fondly call her Vanamuthassi, meaning grandmother of the jungle in Malayalam. This entry records what she held and did, and is not medical advice.