Murugeshwari Balan is a writer and a member of the Pazhaiyar adivasi community, among the oldest inhabitants of the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu. Her articles have been in syndicated in Voices of Rural India and Adivasi Lives Matter, and anthologized in Between Heaven and Earth: Writings on the Indian Hills. She is the recipient of a grant from Shared Ecologies - Shyama Foundation, which is funding a series of articles for Sky Islands. She lives in Bharati Anna Nagar, Perumalmalai.