Survival strategies of the Lodha through the forest: An empirical study of South Bengal

  • Dr. Santanu Panda
Keywords: Tribal, lodha, development, survival strategy, PVTG, Forest, De-notified, Vulnerable

Abstract

In this article, an attempt has been made to find out the relation between forest and Tribal. In India, nearly 10.4 milion tribes which are constitute 8.6% of its total population. The study was conducted among the Lodha community at forest villages in Paschim medinipur Districts, West Bengal. The Lodhas, who were designated as a ‘Criminal Tribe’ by the British administration and later this classification underwent in the postcolonial period. This marginalized community was later put under the category of ‘De-notified Community’, and then reclassified as a “Primitive Tribal Group” (PTG). Now it is re-designated as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). The study revealed that they are surviving themselves by the SHG, Forest Produce Collection, hunting, rope making, domestic animal and poultry bird rearing. But they are survived themselves through forest produce collection and day labourer. Forest is the main economic resources of Lodhas to continue their livelihood strategy. They are collected various items from forest like fruit, medicinal root, Chihar Lata, leaf, wood, animal, herbal/medicinal plants. A strong relation has been found among the Lodhas & forest. “When Tribal has not found any job as day labour at that time they went to forest. During lean period the Lodhas prepared various handicraft products with the help of forest produce. They are also selling the various medicinal roots, leaf, skin to the village medicine man and mahajon. So forest is the economic asset of Tribal.

References

The Indian Constitution, 2015 published by government of india ministry of law and justice
Bhowmick, P. K. (1994). The Lodhas of West Bengal. Kolkata: Institute of Social Research and
Applied Anthropology (ISRAA).
Bhowmick P.K. (1981), Rehabilitaion of a ‘Denotified Community’ The Ex-Criminal Lodhas of
West Bengal. Royal Anthropological Institute Newsletter. 44: 6-8.
Devi, M. (1983). Lodhas of West Bengal-1. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 18, N0. 22, pp 947-949.
Chakraborty,P.S,(2018) Tribal Rights in India, tribe: a conceptual understanding
Later in 1952, the Government of India officially “de-notified” the stigmatized ones
Tribal Rights in India, Dr. Sambhu Prasad Chakraborty.
Census 2011
Published
2021-06-30
How to Cite
Panda, D. S. (2021). Survival strategies of the Lodha through the forest: An empirical study of South Bengal. International Bilingual Journal of Culture, Anthropology and Linguistics, 3(1-2), 63-81. Retrieved from https://indianadibasi.com/journal/index.php/ibjcal/article/view/29

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