Trivandrum: Sreedhanya Suresh, a 2019-batch Kerala-cadre IAS officer, has taken charge as District Collector of Kasaragod, becoming the first woman from a Scheduled Tribe community to head a district in Kerala.

Sreedhanya assumed office on Wednesday, taking over from Arjun Pandian at the Collectorate. She was serving as Commissioner of Food Safety before her appointment to Kasaragod in a recent Kerala government reshuffle involving 36 IAS officers.

After taking charge, Sreedhanya said Kasaragod has considerable potential in tourism and that she would focus on addressing the district’s limitations during her tenure.

Sreedhanya belongs to the Kurichya Scheduled Tribe community in Wayanad. She secured an All India Rank of 410 in the 2018 UPSC Civil Services Examination and became the first tribal woman from Kerala to clear the examination, according to reports.

She grew up in a tribal settlement in Pozhuthana panchayat of Wayanad. Her father, Suresh, worked as a daily-wage labourer, while her mother, Kamala, worked under the rural employment scheme. The family had limited basic amenities, with electricity reaching their home only a few years before Sreedhanya entered the civil services.

She studied in Malayalam-medium government schools and later pursued zoology at Devagiri College in Kozhikode, followed by postgraduate studies at the University of Calicut. Before joining the civil services, she worked with the Tribal Tourism Development Office in Wayanad.

An interaction with a senior civil servant at an event reportedly influenced her decision to pursue the civil services. She subsequently cleared the UPSC examination and joined the IAS.

Her appointment as Kasaragod Collector adds a significant milestone to Kerala’s administrative history, with Sreedhanya becoming the first tribal woman to head a district in the state.

BI Bureau