Impact of Urbanization and Industrialization on Coimbatore Tribal Settlements

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in and around Coimbatore, a major secondary city in South India, are reshaping the social, economic and ecological conditions of nearby tribal settlements located in the Western Ghats fringe. This paper examines the multi-dimensional impacts of these processes on tribal communities, with particular attention to Irula and other Scheduled Tribe groups residing in peri-urban and industrially influenced gram panchayats of Coimbatore district. Using a mixed-methods design, the study combines household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with spatial analysis of land-use and land-cover change derived from secondary datasets. The analysis demonstrates that expansion of urban and industrial land uses has accelerated land alienation, fragmentation of commons and decline in forest-based livelihoods, while simultaneously creating precarious low-wage employment in construction, small-scale manufacturing and service sectors. Although urban proximity has improved physical access to education, health care and financial services, these gains are undermined by insecure tenure, hazardous working conditions, rising living costs, and the erosion of customary institutions that historically mediated social protection within tribal settlements. The findings also reveal differentiated impacts within the tribal population, with women, youth and recent migrants to informal urban settlements experiencing heightened vulnerabilities in terms of occupational risk, social stigma and exposure to gendered violence. Ecologically, conversion of foothill landscapes and increased pressure on water and forest resources have weakened the material basis of traditional subsistence practices and cultural ties to place. The paper argues that current models of urban and industrial development in Coimbatore reproduce structural marginalization by treating tribal territories primarily as labour reserves and land frontiers rather than as socio-ecological systems with distinct rights and knowledge regimes. It concludes by outlining a framework for rights-based, community-centred urban and industrial planning that recognises tribal self-determination, secures collective tenure and integrates tribal institutions into local governance mechanisms.