Native Tribes
In India, native tribals (tribes) are found the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Orissa, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and other northeastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The ‘Scheduled Tribes’ – as officially recognized by the government of India “in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India” – are eligible for certain privileges and welfare measures. Tribals are most of the time geographically isolated on hills or inside forests, living by hunting and food gathering or based on primitive agriculture with poverty and low levels of literacy and health. Each of them has its own heart language, distinctive culture, and animistic religion.
Several of the tribal population groups are identified as more backward communities and have been categorized as 'Primitive Tribes’ by the government. There are seventy-five tribal communities that have been identified as 'primitive tribal groups' in the different states of India.
Though Tribal peoples constitute 8.2% of the nation's total population, they are still a large number- over 84 million people (2001 census). In the northeastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland) more than 90% of the population is tribal. In the rest of the northeast states of Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, and Tripura, tribal peoples form between 20 and 30% of the population.
75% of the total tribal population lives in the Central Indian states. However, the tribal population there accounts for only around 10% of the region's total population.
Six percent in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are members of different tribes while only one percent of the populations of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are tribal.
So where do we start looking at them one by one? Focus on People starts its frame from Kerala. (If you can write about a native tribe in your region, send it to us. We can post it with due acknowledgment and link it to your website).
Tribalscape
Here is a land where the most modern and the poorest live together and move together. Even in cities within a stone's throw’s distance, you will see extreme contrasts of landscapes where millionaires and rag-pickers live as strangers. The hi-tech, industrial, agricultural and pre-literary societies coexist within a few kilometers’ radii. That's India! But there is still a landscape that not many have seen. These are hill ridges and forest ranges. Several hundreds of communities live there without seeing the so-called developed country!
India's tribalscape is awe-inspiring. Come along to some of the hills of the State of Kerala in South India, popularly known as "God's own country"-- the most literate State in the country. You will see people who are untouched by the development of the past 300 years. These tribals -- once the rulers of the land and now most of them worse than slaves – are the inhabitants who were forced to flee for their lives when more migrations and exploitations took place in the land. They are illiterate and ignorant of their rights and privileges as provided by the government. Most of these hill dwellers have never seen a sea or a train; they do not know how to hold a printed-paper! Barefooted, they trek miles to find some work in the valley, on the fringes of the forest.
There are even more primitive natives if you go further interior in the mountains. They live under the shade of rocks and eat fruits and roots that grow naturally. Governments have various provisions for them. But too little reaches the needy. Those supposed to care for the tribals or appointed to see to their welfare often consume the provisions.
On the Western Ghats [one of the scores of hill ranges in India, bordering Kerala and Tamil Nadu/ Karnataka] alone there are 37 major people groups. Some of them are vanishing races. Animals on these mountains are better cared for and protected than the human beings. Although some social organizations have made inroads into these tribal belts, a lot more has to be done to deliver them from the clutches of exploitation, ignorance and injustice.
According to 2001 Census the scheduled tribal population in Kerala is 3,64,189 (female- 184,020; male- 180169). Tribals as seen elsewhere are found on the hills and mountains of Kerala, the Western Ghat, bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Wayanad has the highest number of tribals (1,36,062). Idukki (50973) and Palakkad (39665) districts are the next two that make the lion portion of the native tribal people groups in the state. See district wise population. Paniyar (Paniya) are the biggest tribe among the major 35 tribes.
Primitive Tribes of Kerala
Tribal people groups who are food-gatherers (without any habit of agricultural practice), with diminishing populations and very low or little literacy rates can be called as Primitive Tribes. Cholanaikans, Kurumbas, Kattunaikans, Kadars and Koragas are the five primitive tribal groups in Kerala. They constitute nearly 5 % of the total tribal population in the State. Cholanaikans can be said as the most primitive of them and found only in the Malappuram District. Only a handful of families are living in the Mancheri hills of the Nilambur forest division. Kattunaikans, another lower-hill community related to Cholanaikans, are mainly seen in Wayanad district and some in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. Kadar population is found in Trisur and Palakkad districts. Kurumbas are living in the Attappady Block of Palakkad district. The Koraga habitat is in the plain areas of Kasaragod district.