The Chenchus are a Dravidian tribe, a designated

Scheduled Tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n states 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 ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. They are an aboriginal tribe whose traditional way of life been based on

hunting and gathering A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

. The Chenchus speak the

Chenchu language Chenchu language is a Dravidian language which belongs to the Telugu branch of its South-Central family. This language is spoken mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states in India by about 28,754 people (1981 census) of the Chenchu Aborigi ...

, a member of the Dravidian language family. In general, the Chenchu relationship to non-tribal people has been largely symbiotic. Some Chenchus have continued to specialize in collecting forest products for sale to non-tribal people. Many Chenchus live in the sparse and deciduous Nallamala forest of Andhra Pradesh. The Chenchus are referred to as one of the Primitive Tribal Groups that are still dependent on forests and do not cultivate land but hunt for a living. Non-tribe people living among them rent land from the Chenchus and pay a portion of the harvest. Other people also settled among them with the help of the Chenchus and learned agriculture from them, and the nomadic

Banjara The Banjara (also known as ,Vanzara,Lambadi,Gour Rajput,Labana) are a historically nomadic trading caste who may have origins in the Mewar region of what is now Rajasthan. Etymology The Banjaras usually refer to themselves as ''Gor'' and out ...

herders who graze their cattle in the forest also have been allotted land there. The Chenchus have responded unenthusiastically to government efforts to induce them to take up agriculture themselves.

References

* Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von (1943) ''The Chenchus: A Jungle Folk of the Deccan''. London: MacMillan and Co. *Betageri, Prahlad (1993) ''Adavichenchara Samskruti''. Bangalore: Karnataka Sahitya Academy. (in Kannada)

Footnotes

External links

CEPCE India
*
The Chenchus
A photo essay
A Night With the Tribals
*This article includes material from the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

Library of Congress Country Study The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the United States Library of Congress, freely available for use by researchers. No copyright is claimed on them. Therefore, they have been dedicated to the public domain a ...

. Telugu society Dravidian peoples Hunter-gatherers of Asia Scheduled Tribes of Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Tribes of Telangana Scheduled Tribes of Odisha Scheduled Tribes of Karnataka Social groups of Telangana {{india-ethno-stub

See also

References

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External links