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| Socio-Ecology of a Tribe: The Chenchu :- A food gathering tribe in Andhra Pradesh, Honey collection practices, Farahbad, Mehbubnagar |
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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
Farahbad falls under the jurisdiction of Achampet Taluka in Mahbubnagar district. To reach this village one has to start either from Mannanoor or from Srisailam and get down at Chowrastra. From here a road leads into the forest which further bifurcates over a distance of 4 km towards east and northwest direction. The northwest path leads to Farahbad. |
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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 consisted of 12 huts (1982-at the time of survey) widely spread over an area of 4 acres in three groups. The three groups consisted of the following number of huts
First group-------------2 headed by Eravala Lingaiah
Second group------------4 headed by Thokala Godaiah
Third group-------------6 headed by Thokala Linganna
There were five exogamous groups: Eravala; Tokala; Kudumula; Chigurla; Nimanla. Each group is more or less closely knitted kin group. Maximum cooperation was observed among the members of each group than between groups. The village owned total nine honey deposit sites. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| All the honey sites were owned by Eravala and Thokala families. Eravala Lingaiah was the chief head for all the groups in the village. Though the honey sites were owned by two people only, they never claimed sole authority over them. The village had three separate groups, but many of the activities specially honey collection would involve all the families in the village.
This gudem also had its own territory and the whole territory belonged to all Chenchu families and everybody was having equal rights over it. But actually the territory belonged to Pravala Linganna, who was more a guardian than a owner of the territory
For day to day activities individual family was reported to be responsible. Generally wife and husband would go to the forest to collect some food materials. If in case one family fails to collect food materials, it would depend upon its neighbour but if the neighbours are also not in a position to offer any food stuff then they might ask for help from families of other groups .
Operation: All the heads from all families participates in this expedition. Some strict religious observations are followed during the operation like 1) not using safety matches while making fibre 2)while taking food (sacred food...) a cloth is tied around the nose and mouth so that saliva or air from the nose would not pollute the food. Maximum cooperation would be required from the families in providing food for the honey collecting team
There are nine honey deposits out of which two are found on trees, before collection of honey there is a discussion among all the heads of twelwe families. They select persons who would collect honey and start fixing up each person to each honey deposit |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Out of the total amount of honey collected, it is divided into 30 equal shares among the twelve families of the village i.e., one family got one share each, two families got two share each, three families got three share each and four families got four shares each |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not reported in the text |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Not reported in the text |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Not reported in the text |
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Purpose |
| To study the pooling and distribution practices in chenchu tribe (Honey collection) |
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Country |
| Andhra Pradesh (Mehbubnagar) |
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Region |
| Farahbad |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-11/09/96 |
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