''Podu'' is a traditional system of cultivation used by tribes in India, whereby different areas of jungle forest are cleared by burning each year to provide land for crops. The word comes from the

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

. Podu is a form of

shifting agriculture Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cu ...

using

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

methods. Traditionally used on the hill-slopes of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, it is similar to the jhum method found in north-east India and the bewar system of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. Since the 1930s, there have been attempts to restrict its use in order to conserve forests and permit growth of commercial tree species such as

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

. In the 1980s, it remained the principal method of tilling land for some tribal communities in districts such as

East Godavari East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of 2011 Census of India, census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,54 ...

, West Godavari and, most prevalently,

Srikakulam Srikakulam is a city and the headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. census,. it has a population of 165,735. There are many other places of Buddhist Tourism such as Salihundam, Kalinga Patnam, Dabbaka Vaa ...

, although even by the 1950s its use by the

Kolam Kolam (,, ), also known as Muggu () or Tharai Aalangaram () Rangoli () is a form of traditional decorative art that is drawn by using rice flour as per age-old conventions. It is also drawn using white stone powder, chalk or chalk powder, often ...

and Naikpod tribes of

Adilabad district Adilabad district is a district located in the northern region of Telangana, India. It is known as the gateway district to South and Central India. The town of Adilabad is its headquarters. The district shares boundaries with Asifabad, Nirm ...

had been entirely suppressed. One reason for the difference in treatment, whereby the system is tolerated in areas such as Srikakulam but its practitioners have been forcibly evicted in Adilabad, is that the people in some districts are relatively docile and have not risen up, with the encouragement of Naxalite insurgents, against outside interference as they have elsewhere. Ethnologist

Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf or Christopher von Fürer-Haimendorf FRAI (22 June 1909 – 11 June 1995) was an Austrian ethnologist and professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London. He spent forty years studying tr ...

has noted that, at least in some areas, the podu system also carried implied land rights. A resident of a village could return to land that they had previously cultivated as part of a rotation without fear of dispute from other villagers, although land that had lain unused for some time was considered to be common property and could be adopted for clearance by any villager. He noted that over the period 1941-1979, which were the occasions of his academic field-work, forest officials had introduced restrictions on use but that these were not as onerous in some places as in others, and that in villages with little flat land there were none at all.

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