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The push to drive indigenous people out of forests -Parul Abrol

-Down to Earth

Life of a Dongria Kondh tribal offers insights on Indian government’s reckless interventions into the lives of indigenous people

When 30-year-old Lakshman Huika returned to his village Manda of Munikhol Panchayat in Muniguda block of Rayagada district in Odisha, he had already seen the life in big cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai.

Manda lies deep inside Niyamgiri Hills and is accessible only by foot—at least three hours walk from the Munikhol Panchayat plus another hour walk till Muniguda town.

Lakshman belongs to the reclusive Dongria Kondh tribe, which typically resides in the hills known as Donger in local language. He is one of the rare few from his community who left to work outside and is fluent in Hindi.

The reason why he returned is the key to understanding the life Dongrias offer to their community, while offering insights into Indian government’s reckless interventions into the lives of indigenous people.

As Lakshman sat with his 10-year-old nephew Badro Sikoka atop the hill, resting after the early morning farming session, he says, “There is nothing in the cities that offer me what I have here. This is my land, my mother. We live our part and pass on to the next generation. If I don’t teach my nephew how to believe in our way of life, who will?”

Downhill, right next to an overflowing stream, Lakshman’s sister Kochari Sikoka was working on another piece of land with her two young daughters, sister and mother.

Malvika Gupta, who is pursuing a DPhil in international development at Oxford University on indigenous education, and anthropologist Felix Padel who has worked extensively on indigenous issues in India, explain, “The Dongrias still have what anthropologists have (inadequately) termed 'youth dormitories', which promotes many interpersonal communication skills as well as dances, songs, myths, stories, and skills of doing and making things, including 'food production' that are absent from the school curriculum.”

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