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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gotti Koya Tribals
Why in the News?
- The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has asked the Union Home Ministry and the states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha to submit a detailed report on the condition of Gotti Koya tribals.
Why did the NCST urge the Centre and States?
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About the Gotti Koya Tribe:
| Details | |
| Ethnicity | • Multi-racial and multi-lingual communities found in the forests, plains, and valleys on both sides of the Godavari River in AP, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.
Migrated from Bastar, northern India. |
| Language | • Koya language (Koyi) is a Dravidian language related to Gondi and influenced by Telugu.
• Most speak Gondi or Telugu alongside Koyi. |
| Occupation | • Pastoralists and shifting cultivators (Podu), now engaged in settled cultivation, animal husbandry, and seasonal forest collection.
Grow Jowar, Ragi, Bajra, and other millets. |
| Society and Culture | • Divided into five subdivisions (gotrams). • Patrilineal and patrilocal family structure, with a focus on the nuclear family. • Monogamy is practiced. • Worship their own ethnic religion alongside Hindu gods, with Mother Earth being a significant deity. • Maintain community funds and grain banks for food security. • Burial or cremation of the dead, with the erection of menhirs in memory. |
| Festivals | • Vijji Pandum (Seeds charming festival) and KondalaKolupu (Festival to appease hill deities). • Perform the Permakok (Bison horn dance) during festivals and marriages. |
| Important Fair | • Sammakka Saralamma Jatra, held once every two years on the full moon day of Magha Masam (January/February) at Medaram village, Warangal district. |
| Migration Due to Conflict | • Many fled to Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) in the mid-2000s due to violent conflicts between Maoist insurgents and Salwa Judum (Govt backed tribal militia).
• Salwa Judum was later banned by the Supreme Court of India in 2011. |
PYQ:[2014] Every year, a month long ecologically important campaign/festival is held during which certain communities/tribes plant saplings of fruit-bearing trees. Which of the following are such communities/ tribes? (a) Bhutia and Lepcha |
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