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| Socio-Ecology of a Tribe: The Chenchu :- A food gathering tribe in Andhra Pradesh, Honey collection practices, Peddacheruvu, 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
Pedacheruvu is a large multi tribal village, inhabited by Chenchu, Sugali and Boya tribes. It is located in Atmakur, taluk of Kurnool district. The village is situated on a plateau with an average elevetion of 2000 ft. consisting of a maze of rolling hills and flat valleys with a panoramic tank in the middle. The vilage is one of the biggest villages having a population of 519 with more than 100 chenchu families. |
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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: The village has more than 100 chenchu families. There are 14 honey deposit sites, most of them belong to Pulichula exogamous group. There were seven elders who had their own group. This was classified into two tier: secondary and tertiary
A majority of members in the secondary group belong to the exogamous group of its leader whereas the members from tertiary group may belong to more than one exogamous group. The entire bulk of tertiary group is closely knitted through kinship ties. The sceondary groups other than the one from which the leaders come, had their own leaders, |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Thaluri Pacchnagaddi Linganna, a middle aged person was the leader to the entire village, he is supposed to be the head of the gudem, but apart from him there are several other groups who have their own leaders.
Operation: The whole operation of honey collection takes 4 days. The first day the people are engaged in worshipping the diety and preparing all the material required. Honey is extracted till fourth day morning, then in the evening work like squeezing honey, heating and transfering it into clean dried pots are accomplished |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| The tribal leaders favoured equal shares among the people i.e., equal parts to all those people who participate plus a extra share of the same quantity of honey to the owners. This decision was not agreed upon by the owners for the reason that they are very in number and hence they get very little compared to the total honey extracted. The alternative method (refer conflict) appeared more beneficial for both the groups, and therefore they agreed to follow this decision |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Some two or three generations ago some conflict had arisen between the people of Dasari Naraiah (The forest discoverer of the site-Kudupa Serri) and people from Peddacheruvu who used to keep them. All the present owners were not sure what was the pattern of sharing the honey after it is collected between the the owners and the helpers. It was said that the honey was shared equally i.e., one part to the owners and the other part to the helpers. As it so happened that the helpers started demanding a major share and subsequently ownership not only due to the fact that majority of persons were involved in honey collection but also because they belonged to the same exogenous group as that of the owner-Dasari. These helpers wanted the owners to understand that Dasari Naraiah had entered into a deal with their ancestors where it was decided that all the people would have equal shares and thereby conforming their ownership with the honey and the site. But the owners said this was a misinterpretation and Dasari never gave ownership to them but he engaged them as his assistants as he was not having any relatives and so he used to give them half the share. Then a meeting was held in which it was decided that each group would explore the site every alternative year. When one group explored honey from the main site the other group would concentrate on those honey combs deposited on trees nearby the main site. |
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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 |
| Peddacheruvu |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-28/06/96 |
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