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| Socio-Ecology of a Tribe: The Chenchu :- A food gathering tribe in Andhra Pradesh, Honey collection practices, Nagalutigudem, Kurnool |
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Reference |
| Gupta, Anil K; Gangadhar, V:1982 " Socio-Ecology of a Tribe: The Chenchu :- A food gathering tribe in Andhra Pradesh |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| The Chenchus are spread over in small habitation dispersed over the western and southern stretches of the Nallamalai hills mostly in isolated groups.The Nallamalai hills form a part of Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh.The Chenchu gudems (habitation) are spread over these forest cover hills on both sides of river Krishna.The northern side falling in the Telangana area in Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts and the southern side in the Rayalasama and Andhra area, mostly in Kurnool and Guntur districts.
It is believed that the chenchus inhabited this area much earlier then the Dravidians, they were referred to as Adi-chenchus.The total population of the Chenchu was about 25,000 as per 1971 census, and a bulk of this population is inhabiting the forest areas of Kurnool, Ongole, Guntur and Mahbubnagar districts
The Nallamalai have a continuous range of unbroken, rugged and fairly steep hils with an average elevation of 2,000 running in northsouth directions.Three types of soil is found in this region: Black cotton, Alluvial soil (brown loamy) and red-brown soil
Traditionally the chenchus are semi-nomadic food gatherers living in the forests, their main economic resource being the forest wealth.But now-a-days the staple food of the chenchus is jowar and rice, supplemented by some forest produce.Honey is one of the seasonal food stuffs which the chenchu collect with great interest and zeal
The chenchu recognize five varieties of honey :
1) PERRA: Found in big trees and gorges and ravines with big bees
2)THODIDI:found in trees with red coloured bees
3)ROSARA:found in the tree trunks with small and round bees
4)KANNAGALLU:found in trees and bushes with small bees
5)JANTI: Found in trees and palm trees with white strapped bees. This honey is supposed to be most delicious
Out of the five variety, the first one is available in large quantities
Nagalutigudem is situated near the foothills of Western part of Nallamalai hills of Kurnool district. Due to extensive deforestation and afforestation activities in and around , the ecological balance of this region got disturbed, which further affected the traditional food gathering and hunting of the chenchus of Nagaluti. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Not reported |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spatial:
Social: There are 42 households in the village formed into three groups. The village territory is sub-divided into three parts. The three groups in the village use these sub territories one each. Gum trees in each sub-territory are owned by individual families in each group There are two honey deposits in the village territory which are privately owned: the first one was owned by five households and the second one was owned by seven households. Total eight persons have the skill of collecting honey, out of which five persons are the owner of honey deposits.
Colection of honey is something more than a mere subsistence activity, it is carried over in a very systematic and organised way. Several rules and regulations are strictly followed in order to avoid dangerous competitions and disruptive tendencies that may arise in claiming ownership of bee-lines.
A chenchu can claim ownership over a particular bee-line by making a deep cut in the main stem of the tree or by planting a wet branch on the ground near the ant-hill or berth in which the honey-line is present. Besides certain trees , some locations in the mountains like cliffs or gorges or certain hills are customarily owned by few families. The sole authority to collect honey from these locations lies exclusively on the respective family members. The allotment of locations is said to have been done by the chenchu ancestors in order to maintain peace and solidarity among the people.Every location is associated with family diety, and it is a general belief that this safeguards the honey bee-line an kills the people who do not have any claim on it |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| There is a village leader appointed by the local forest officials, but his power is very much limited. He intervenes in some disputes to settle.
Regarding the task involving honey collection, initiation is taken by one of the senior owners instead of village leader. All the owners have to contribute some money for the initial investment. Those who do not contribute will not be entitled for ownership share. One single owner can bear the whole initial investment and claim honey proportion to that amount All the owners distribute certain tasks like, for inviting members to act as chief honey collector or as helpers, purchase of food grains, contacting merchants etc. Therefore the honey collecting team, consists of both owners and other persons, the group size varies between 15 to 20 member, selection of the members are done accordind to their skill. The chief honey collector acts as the leader of the team. He assigns tasks to the members, but certain tasks like fixing up of the loop and ladder set-up is done by himself and his brother in law or some nearest relative. Owners generally do not supervise
Maintenance: Theft of honey is considered to be a serious crime, in case there are any, they are traced out through proper investigation, religious performance |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| When the honey is collected, the owners have to give nearly 5 kgs of honey to the chief honey collector who share it with his brother in law or his chief helpers. Then, the initial investment is met by taking out an equal quantity of honey proportionate to the amount of investment ??????.The remaining qnantiy of honey is distributed in the following manner:- 1) one share to all the participants including chief honey collector and owners
2)one share to each of owners whether participated or not
3)one share to the ritual specialist
4)one share to the village leader in case he is involved either in the operation or organising the team
Generally the owners and the non-owners get equal share of total yield. Other members of the village who do not participate in the activity is not entitled for any share
The chief honey collector is entitled for twice or thrice (rarely) the amount of a single share. Sometimes he is offered two or three honey combs extra instead of shares. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not reported |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Not reported |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Not reported |
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Purpose |
| To study the pooling and distribution practices in chenchu tribe (Honey collection) |
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Country |
| Andhra Pradesh (Kurnool) |
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Region |
| Nallamalai hills (Nagalutigudem) |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-17/08/96 |
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