30 years on,curbs on entry to tribal heartland lifted

In less than half of the area of Abujmarh,the local aboriginal tribes engage themselves in shifting cultivation,which,in local parlance,is known as “Penda kheti”. Except for occasional visits to ‘haat bazars’ or weekly markets,the tribals have almost no link with the outside world.

Announcing to lift movement restrictions in Abujmarh,Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh said the area remained without any proper survey. “Satellite mapping to locate villages in the region is being carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Once that is done,revenue staff would be sent to these villages for a house-to-house survey,” he said at a meeting of Bastar Development Authority.

Dr Satish,a senior journalist in Bastar,told The Indian Express that movement restrictions in the region were imposed in the early 1980s when a foreign television channel telecast a documentary about the lives of Abujmarh tribals and the traditional “Gotul” system of Muria Gond tribes,allegedly showing them in nude and portraying their ‘Gotul’ system in poor light.

“This sparked a controversy and the then Bastar collector S P Vyas impressed upon the then government of undivided Madhya Pradesh to impose restrictions on entering Abujmarh,” he said.

When asked how far the restrictions have been effective in the past three decades,Dr Satish said,“It’s a vast forest area and there are no gates anywhere to monitor the movement of people.”