Chennai, Jul 4 (IANS): Even as the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu created history by vaccinating almost all the eligible tribal populace of the district, in certain pockets of Coimbatore, the tribes refused to get the vaccine with men even climbing trees and women running to the river to fetch water to avoid the jab.

The Tamil Nadu Public health department has already sent SOS to several NGOs in the health sector in the state to create awareness among the tribes to make them comply for vaccination. Sraddha, an NGO based out of Chennai and Coimbatore, has already come out to create awareness among tribes and on the importance of vaccination.

Sraddha is an organization based out of Saibaba Colony in Coimbatore as well as at Valsaravakam in Chennai and is using puppetry to teach differently-abled as well as tribal children and those with learning disabilities.

The NGO will be using puppetry to educate the tribes on the necessity of vaccination and the grave danger posed by the Covid-19 and that the vaccination is the only solution to prevent the disease.

Mohandas P.K., chairman of Sraddha charitable society, told IANS, "It's a very sad situation that the tribal people who are indeed the indigenous people of this country do not understand the gravity of the disease. We are already working among the tribal population and hence they know us and we know them, this will help us provide them the necessary awareness on vaccination drive. We are using puppetry show to create educational awareness generally and now we employ the similar method to educate the tribal population of Coimbatore on vaccination."

The state public health department officials said that they have already spoken to several NGOs regarding the awareness among the tribal people and that the awareness will commence soon.