17 State, Society and Development in India: Tribe and Issues of survival
Sugata Mohanty
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Section- I- Issues of Survival among the tribes of India
a. Pre- Independence Period
b. Post- Independence Period
3. Section – II- A micro-level Analysis – The state of Odisha
a. Pre- Independence Period
b. Post- Independence Period
4. Section – III- The New Economic Policy and its impact on the tribes of Odisha
5. Conclusion
Introduction:
In a society as diverse and complex as India, marginalization is a multi-layered phenomenon and critical area of concern for regional, national and international community. While development is always broadly conceived in terms of mass participation in the growth process, marginalization deprives certain groups of citizens from participating in the development process effectively. It is in this background that one should study the Indian society and its heterogeneity, which provides much more complexity with reference to the problem of survival of the marginalised citizens of the country. This situation is particularly apt in case of the tribal people of the country. Why is this so? The tribes constitute a very important segment of Indian society and are officially called as the scheduled tribes (ST) (Article 342). There are 705 tribes scheduled by the government of India as per 2011, census. These tribes are socio-economically and educationally backward classes among the citizens of this country. They belong to the weaker section of the population and are therefore entitled to protection against social injustice and every form of exploitation under Article 46 of the Indian constitution (Behura, 1993).
In the post independence era, the new government adopted the ideology based on socialistic and democratic values, and the perception towards the role of state with regard to tribe has changed. Besides the rights and privileges which were at par with the other citizens, the tribes have been provided with protective and corrective measures under various constitutional provisions including the fifth and sixth schedules. Therefore, in popular notion, the relationship between the state and the tribes is being treated as cooperative and the policies of the states are regarded as welfaristic in nature. However, after many decades of planned development and economic measures, it is reported by different studies from different parts of the country that the incidence of poverty, indebtedness, lack of education, erosion of tribal rights over the natural resources, displacement and land alienation is rampant among the tribes of India. This grim situation of the tribes compels us to think that, probably in reality the development policies have benefitted the large scale private sector industries and did not involve any radical restructuring of the relations of production into a more democratic or egalitarian system committed to improving the tribal position. In such a context the relationship between state and the tribes needs to be examined in more detail at the spatial level.
In the present module, we examine the role of the state in addressing the marginalised experience of the tribes, while taking into context the issues of survival of the tribes, located in one of the underdeveloped regions of the country, the state of Odisha. The aim of the paper is to provide an understanding of the inter-linkages between marginalization, regional underdevelopment and policies of the state. We will be discussing the changing scenarios in the tribal life of India taking into consideration the survival issues’ and will link the micro level experiences of underdevelopment and marginalization with the macro level structures and policies.
For analysis purpose here we have chosen the two major sources of tribal livelihood i.e land and forest. Along with the introduction to the subject and conclusion there are three sections in this module. The first section will deal with the issues of survival among the tribes of India from pre-independence era to the post- independence period. To understand the situation at a micro-level, in the second section an effort has been taken to discuss the tribes of Odisha and their diminishing control over the natural resources. Interestingly in the year 2013, a panel headed by Raghuram Rajan (present RBI Governor) stated that the state is the most backward state of India and hence needs special assistance from the central government (The Hindu, 2013). The third section focuses on the new economic policies and the marginalization of the tribes of Odisha.
Distribution of the tribes:
The tribal communities of India are scattered in various ecological and geo-climatic conditions ranging from plains, forests, hills and sometimes inaccessible areas. These tribal people are in different stages of socio, economic, political and educational development. As per 2011 census, the total tribal population of our country is 10.43 crores constituting 8.6% of the total population. Out of them, 89.97% live in the rural areas and 10.03 % in the urban areas. These tribes inhabit broadly two major geographical areas such as central India and the North- Eastern areas. It is observed that more than half the STs are concentrated in central India, i.e. Madhya Pradesh (14.69%), Chhattisgarh (7.5%), Jharkhand (8.29%), Andhra Pradesh (5.7%), Maharashtra (10.08%), Odisha (9.2%), Gujarat (8.55%), and Rajasthan (8.86%). (Source: Ministry of Tribal Affair).
Section: I- Issues of Survival among the tribes of India
Pre-Independence period
As Ramdas (2009) has pointed out, the origin of survival issues among the tribes can be traced back to the periods of deprivation of tribal people from their resources. Historical documents reveal that, centuries ago due to the arrival of advanced groups in India, tribal people started losing their territories. The new groups being superior in their technology and outlook forced the tribes to the nearest jungles and started occupying their fertile lands. It is found that in earlier days the tribes used to depend on the resources available in their immediate surroundings for sustenance. The community used to survive on food collected through gathering and hunting in the nearby areas. With the passing of time the tribes acquired new skills for undertaking agricultural activities. Tribes used to clear the forest and make it cultivable and in the process, establish control over it. The tribal societies also had various religious ways to conserve their natural surroundings. They focused on the conservation of forest for its sustainable use. However with the growth of population many non-tribes from the nearby areas came to settle in the tribal areas and slowly started acquiring the forest and land. The condition further aggravated during the colonial rule (Verma, 2002).
Gadgil (1990) stated that the system of sustainable use of natural resources by the local people took a new turn with the advent of the British rule in the country. The colonial rulers had much advanced knowledge of science which was beyond the simple trial and error method of learning of the primitive groups. In this period, cultivated as well as uncultivated lands were utilized for the production of a wide variety of resources to be exported out of the local area. Under the colonial economic system the survival goods became commodities and the demand for which could be increased without any limit to it. The colonial government neither recognized the local concept of community control nor facilitated the process of conservation practices such as sacred groves in tribal India. In order to have a constant outflow of resources from the local areas to meet the colonial needs, the government introduced various laws. These laws are called as land laws and the forest laws. Haimendorf (1985) explained that, in order to have effective control over the tribal areas, the colonial government started improving the communication system. The government also established a system of land record and introduced land tenure and a system of revenue collection in these areas. After the insertion of land records the agricultural land became an individual transferable property. With the development of the communication system, the price of the agricultural products and land value began to rise. During this period under the protection of British administration; traders, moneylenders and other settlers entered into the tribal areas. These people began to settle down in the tribal areas and started controlling the economy by occupying vast stretches of tribal land. The situation further aggravated with the implementation of different forest policies.
Before 1865, forest dwellers were completely free to use the forest. On 3rd August 1865, the British rulers, on the basis of the report of the then superintendent of forests in Burma, issued a memorandum providing guidelines restricting the rights of forest dwellers to conserve the forests (Joshi, 1989). In the name of scientific forestry different acts were enacted to restrict peoples’ right over the forest. Valuable trees were destroyed to meet the demand of the defense industry, plywood factories, underground structures in coal mines, railway sleepers, etc. Saravanan (2008) in his study stated that the focus of the colonial forest policy was to extract the forest resources for commercial purposes and that resulted in a negative impact on both the environment and the tribal population in the area. Further, he argues that the colonial policies had always claimed to be people centric; whereas it actually aimed at commercializing rather than conserving forest resources. In reality, the forest policy led to the disintegration of the traditional tribal system and their forest-oriented economy. Unfortunately these policies of the yesteryears continue to exist even till today.
Post- Independence Period:
In this period many plans and policies were formulated in the name of development of the weaker section of the society. The National Forest Policy of the Government of India (1952) is one among them. The content of it shows that in reality it is an extension of the colonial policy. The post Independence policy prescribed that the claims of the communities near forests should not override the national interests. According to it, in no event can the forest dweller use the forest wealth at the cost of the wider national interests and that conversion of forest land for agriculture should be permitted only in very exceptional and essential cases. This resulted in pauperization and systematic dispossession of tribal people from their traditional customary rights. Elwin (1963) has very aptly described the state of tribal people, where he says, there was a time when the tribes were viewing themselves as lord of the forests. The situation was altered completely through a deliberate process where they became subject and placed under the forest department. He felt tribal villages are no longer an essential part of the forest but were there merely on sufferance. The traditional rights of the tribes were also no longer recognized as rights. On the other hand in 1894 they became ‘rights and privileges’ and in 1952 they became ‘rights and concessions’. Now they are regarded as only concessions.
Bhanumathi (2001) has pointed out that at least till 90’s India followed socialistic model of development where the role of state was clearly welfare and social justice was its fundamental principle. However, with the introduction of the new economic policy in 1991, there was a complete reversal in the welfare and socialistic mode of development. The resources available in the Scheduled Areas were viewed as having vast potential for exploitation and the new economic policy showed a clear inclination of the state’s approval of providing accessibility of these regions to global and private owners. With globalization it is the market and not the community which became the actual player. In the name of development many mega development projects such as multipurpose river dams, power plants, mineral based industries like iron and steel plants, aluminum plants were set up in the tribal areas. This resulted in massive exploitation of mineral resources and acquisition of land in the tribal heartland.
As it is discussed by Dixit (2006) by the year 2000, India had invested more than 300 billion on dams and hydropower projects. The World Bank had directly funded as many as 87 large scale dam projects in India as against 58 for the whole of the African continent and 59 for Latin America. It is also noticed that between 1981 and 1990, the World Bank had provided $7 billion dollar for these projects in India which is 1/5th of its total funding for 85 countries all over world. Therefore, all the major dam projects in India became intrinsically connected to world capitalism. Nearly 60% of these large dams are located in both central and western India, where more than 75% of the tribal population lives. These activities in the name of development have alienated many tribal people from their ancestral properties. In this context, the United Nations Environment Program Report (2003) should be viewed. The report states that, the Karjan and Sukhi reservoir in Gujarat have displaced only tribes. Around 98% of displaced people in Balimela Hydro Project and 96% in Upper Colab project in Orissa are from tribal communities. Many a times though they are displaced from their livelihood, they lack legal rights over it since the land laws recognize only individual ownership rights and maintain silence over the common property resources (CPRs).
Ramdas (2009) points out that the issue has aggravated further in the recent times due to the growing importance of commoditization of products and services in the changing economy. The early statistics related to landholding pattern is not available and therefore it is difficult to present the exact magnitude of inequalities in the case of land. This gap in the information is also accepted by the National Commission on Backward Areas. The Post Independence census data of 1961 shows that 29% of the ST households had land holdings of less than 2.4 acres as compared to 34.5 % of general caste population. The data also shows a gradual deterioration of land ownership among the STs. The annual report of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (2007-08) states that 5.06 lakh cases of tribal land alienation have been registered. It covers a total of 9.02 lakh acres of land of which 2.25 lakh cases have been disposed off in favour of tribal people covering a total area of 5.00 lakh acres and 1.99 lakh cases covering areas of 4.11 lakh acres have been rejected by the courts on various grounds. Various reports state that not a single case out of 29,596 cases has been ruled in favour of the tribal people of Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, in Odisha 43,213 out of 1, 04,644 cases and in Tripura 20,043 out of 29,112 cases were decided against the tribal people and rejected by the authorities (AITPN, 2008).
As discussed above, the resource exhausting development model, practiced by the modern civilized men is gradually snatching away scarce resources from the tribal ecosystem in the name of increasing per capita income and modern economic development. This development model causes deprivation and resource alienation among the ecosystem people and pushes them into the state of poverty. In fact it is these minority sections of aboriginal population who bear the brunt of modern resource exhausting development and virtually face threat to their existence.
Section- II- A micro-level Analysis -The state of Odisha
To understand the issues of survival at a micro level, the state of Odisha is taken into account. The question arises, why Odisha? Odisha is a classic example of a ‘rich resources and poor people’ state. The state has the highest production of aluminum in India. It also contains 1/5th of India’s coal, ¼ of India’s iron and most of the chromites deposits (Wikipedia.org). While on one hand the state is the most favourite destination for foreign direct investment, on the other hand it is one of the most backward states of our country. As per the planning commission’s report (2004-05) Odisha has 39.9% of BPL population. The problem of survival among tribes is as severe in Odisha as in the other states of India. Scheduled Tribes, which constitute more than twenty-two percent of Orissa’s population are the most marginalized and poor social group in the State, with over 72% living under the poverty line. Kumar and Choudhury’s (2005) study shows, though land and land based resources are central to the livelihoods of tribal people, they have poor access to land and forests. Most tribal communities in Orissa have a strong cultural and social relationship with its environment, with many practicing communal ownership of land. The study emphasized, the poor access of tribal land is not only the outcome of land alienation to non tribes, but is also a result of land and forest policies followed by the State. Hence, it is essential that a historical analysis of the survival options among the tribes in Odisha and their socio economic, political and ecological dynamics need to be studied in more detail as the state has more than one- fifth of the population as tribes. More so, tribal poverty is very acute in the state. Of late it has further aggravated due to loss of their sustainable means of subsistence and backwardness causing isolation from the mainstream development paradigm of post Independent India.
Issues of Survival among the tribes of Odisha:
Pre-Independence Period
The situation of tribes in the pre-colonial period was more or less same in all parts of the country. With the advent of colonial rule the situation started changing. It is observed that till the first half of the 19th century the tribal regions of Odisha were mostly inaccessible. Southern districts like Kalahandi, Ganjam, Koraput and Phulbani received due importance with regard to communication only after the annexation of these areas by the British. Most of the officers then posted in these areas advocated for the development of the communication system only to fulfill their own interest. A.J.M Mills, the then Commissioner of the Tributary Mahals of Odisha emphasized on the development of roads, as he considered the opening of roads through the uncivilized and jungle countries would help in putting down rebellions which erupted among the tribes of those areas. Officers like Captain Macpherson and John Campbell gave importance to the opening of roads through the regions of the ghats (hill tracts) for the promotion of interactions between the tribal and the surrounding non-tribal population as the first step towards promotion of modern civilization among the natives. Due to these recommendations the British government opened up roads in the tribal areas of Odisha and that made the non-tribe entry easy (Pattnaik, 1997). As mentioned in the Citizen’s Report (1994) another factor which also contributed to the process is the great Bengal- Orissa famine of 1866-67, which took away almost 1/4th of the lives of the coastal districts of Odisha. It is because of the famine, that the non-tribal inhabitants of the coastal areas came to the up hills in search of livelihood.
Inter-regional movements of the non-tribes also increased due to the population growth and expansion of economic activities. Slowly but steadily in the tribal areas, the resource transfer from the natives to the immigrants started occurring and in due course of time the natives were pushed into a resource crunch situation and became ready to provide easy labour to the newly established owners. The British Government’s major intention was to collect revenue and exploit natural resources from each and every part of the state for their own interest. To collect revenue, the Government started introducing new land tenure system and land Laws. Written documents in foreign languages were introduced in a society where legitimacy was given to the words of mouth. The government appointed many officials to take care of the administration and collection of taxes in the tribal areas. The officials used to receive acres of forest land in lieu of their service and these rents free lands actually belonged to the tribals (Pattnaik, 1992; Boal, 1982).
Post- Independence Period:
With independence new hope arose among the people of the country and people of Odisha were not an exception to it. There was lot of optimism and belief among all the sections of the society. The people started thinking that the plans and programmes of the new government would be successful in bringing down mass poverty and destitution caused due to years of colonial exploitation. Hence when the first Prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, called the people to sacrifice their home and hearth for the development of the nation no one protested against the idea. Owing to this, the foundation stone of Hirakud Dam (in Odisha), the first major multipurpose dam was laid and acres of land were acquired under Land Acquisition Act of 1894 displacing many tribal families from their home and hearth. The affected people accepted the compensation fixed by the government. Very often, the compensation was paid as per the social status and articulation level of the displaced families.
It is observed from Baboo’s study (1991) on the Hirakud dam that the ousted people have been paid a meagre compensation for the loss of their agricultural land and houses. Their community life has been ruptured and because of the poor planning of the government, the local tribals suffered general hardship and economic decline. It was also found that even after more than 50 years of establishment of the dam, the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) problems of the displaced persons continue till today in some form or another. Fernandes and Raj (1992) also mentioned that 58% of lands acquired for National Aluminum Company (NALCO) of Damanjodi which is a tribal dominated area of district Koraput, Orissa were Common Property Resources. Therefore no compensation was paid to the displaced persons as they did not have individual patta (Record of Right) in their name. An average of Rs. 2,700/- per acre was paid for the little private land that they owned. On the other hand 18 % of the land acquired in the same year for NALCO’s another unit in ‘high caste’ dominated areas of Angul district where the patta land owners were paid an average of Rs 25,000/- per acre. Backed by the post independence era’s, new land reform process which justifies the fact that the state alone has the right to decide and define the public purpose and can also displace a person from his/her private property any time.
The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 was again amended in 1984 without changing the content of it. The act says “It is not necessary that land when taken should be made available to the public at large, but it is enough if it is in the general interest of community as opposed to individual interest”) (Land Acquisition Act, 1984).The land reform process also could not succeed in transferring the land from the non-cultivators to the cultivators. So the poverty and scarcity conditions forced the poor to sell off their land in order to fulfill their daily requirements. Even when canal irrigation was introduced many marginal and small farmers could not pay the land and water tax or invest on the agricultural development so they were forced to sell away their lands (CPSW, 1994).
In the case of the land holdings of the tribes, it is found that the tribal dominated districts witness the limited amount of private land holdings by the tribes. The data provided in the United Nations Development Programme Report (2008) and district’s statistical handbook (2005) show that more than 75% land is recorded as the government property. Similarly, out of 10 tribal districts, four (Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput and Rayagada) of them have less than 40 percent forest land. The other two districts such as Mayurbhanj (42.16%) and Nawarangpur (46.54%) have less than 50% forest cover. Similarly, except Kandhamal (71.18%) the rest of the districts have 60% of the area covered with the forest land (Table-1). Though it shows some amount of forest coverage in the tribal areas, the maximum percentage of forest land are considered as either reserved forest or protected forest. In any case the tribal people are restricted by the law to enjoy their traditional forest rights, since entry into the forest is considered as trespassing. The tribal people are asked to pay fines by the forest officials for such acts. The restriction of the government in accessing the resources has a huge bearing on the sustainability of the tribal living pattern.
In case of the unrecorded lands, the tribes are always treated as trespassers. It is found that the plain table method for mapping of land is used in Odisha. According to this method land beyond 10 degrees slope cannot be measured because only horizontal distance can be mapped and measured. Therefore all land above 10 degrees was categorized as state owned uncultivable wasteland, although much of this land was cultivated by the tribal people. However, in March 2000, the government of Odisha decided to provide ownership rights to all people in the scheduled areas, cultivating land up to 30 degrees slope and to carry out a special survey on it. This is yet to be implemented in all the scheduled areas of the state (Saxena, 2004).
The tribes have always taken the pain to justify and prove the ownership of their land .This process has started in the colonial period and continuing even till today. The post independence forest acts have always tried to minimize the tribal access to the forest areas. Through the forest conservation act of 1980, vast areas were recorded as reserved/ protected forests without settling the local rights. Samal (2007) mentions that, many development projects were approved under section –II of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. It is found that from the period 1982 to 2010, there are a total of 376 projects covering an area of 36985.64 hectares that have been diverted for non-forest use. It is observed that from 1982 to 1991, a total 87, projects covering an area of 9,800 hectares of forest land and in 1992 to 2000-01, a total 130 projects covering an area of 15, 543 acres of land have been diverted for different non- forest uses. This clearly projects that large patches of forest land have been simply diverted towards different development projects in the liberalization period. The number of projects and occupied area are increasing day by day as the period from 2002 to 2010 has also witnessed around 159 projects diverting 11,642.08 acres of forest land for the non-forest use (Table-2).
Section- III- The New Economic Policy and its impact on tribes of Odisha
The 1990s’ witnessed the introduction of the new economic policy and to make the best use of it, the state of Odisha announced its new power, infrastructure and mining policies to invite foreign and domestic private investments. Studies show that during 1995-96, Odisha received the largest amount of private investment in India, both foreign and domestic. On top of it, the state government provided huge subsidies to investors and the states’ cheap labour force further made it investor-friendly. Odisha attracted Rs. 97,300 cores of investments during 1992-97 and the majority of it went to heavy mineral based industries consisting of steel, alumina and power projects (Mohanty and Mohanty, 2009). As Samal (2011) has rightly put it, Odisha has turned into a ‘resource- curse’ state as it has lower economic growth than the states having lesser resources. He further pointed out that the massive investments (as a part of the liberalization process), in the mineral processing industries in the state has led to large scale displacement of the people and most of them belong to the weaker sections, particularly the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
The impact of globalization is seen in almost every aspect of the so-called development. It has had a tremendous impact on the agriculture and allied sectors too. In Odisha, we see two important forms of commercialization of agriculture. In one case, the land is taken away from the farmers by giving a premium for a particular period and the other method is by asking the farmers to undertake the agricultural activity, and taking instructions. Though commercialization of agriculture fetches more money; it progressively diminishes the productivity of the land. (Ex. in case of cotton production, once the land is free from the cultivation, it becomes barren because of the heavy use of chemicals. The land becomes completely unsuitable even for cattle grazing). When the productivity of the land decreases, the land use value decreases simultaneously. Many of the tribal lands are used for such commercial use. On the other hand, production of commercial crops like cashew, lemon grass and spices, etc. have become a hindrance to the production of cereals and pulses (food grains) which may lead to the shortage of food materials or high cost of it in the tribal areas. Due to the commercial value of the agricultural products, the tribes are lured to produce them more in order to get immediate cash (UNDP, 2008). Majority of the tribes were the traditional land owners. It is because of the change in the political economy of the state that the owners of the land are gradually becoming agricultural labourers. This is an alarming trend which is taking place among the tribes of Odisha. When we look at the data from the census year 1961 to 2001, it is found that there is a marked decline in the percentage of ST cultivators from 62.8 % in 1961 to 33.3% in 2001 and there has been an increase in the agricultural labourers from 22.2 percent in 1961 to 46.91 percent in 2001 (Table-3).
Conclusion:
Though we claim many achievements in the field of science and technology, the tribes of India in general and Odisha in particular continue to struggle for their basic existence and survival. Loss of control over the resources has deprived them of their main source of sustenance. It is said that, land is their life and forest is their home. However, with the imposition of the forest laws and commercialization of forest resources things are planned to be modified to meet the growing consumption need of modern consumerist man. Therefore, it has become difficult for them to depend completely on the forest and forest products for their sustenance. Hence focus shifts to agriculture and other allied sectors. In a social setting and in case of a social problem no magic wand or instant remedies really work. The above descriptions about the dynamics of the issue of survival with the different stake holders have given rise to a general consensus that poverty is the root cause of the current situation of the tribes. The term ‘development’ denotes the holistic improvement of any person or place. It is the present development model which seems to be more modern consumer centric than addressing the basic problems of the down trodden. In order to have a better development scenario in the tribal areas there is a need to have a more inclusive and consensual order of development. This cohesive way of addressing the situation would minimize the gap between the have and have not’s in the tribal society. The modern means of development should also be regulated properly so that it can bestow the benefits of development on the poor majority. The focus of the model should be on better quality of life and security of living of the weaker sections such as the tribes, in a sustainable manner.
Table-1- Tribal Land Status in the Scheduled Area of Odisha
| Sl. No | Districts | private land holding (% of total except forest) | government land (% of the land area except forest) | % of forest land |
| 1 | Gajapati | 15.39 | 84.61 | 57.08 |
| 2 | Kalahandi | 37.13 | 64.10 | 32.04 |
| 3 | Keonjhar | 19.01 | 79.80 | 37.30 |
| 4 | Kandhamal | 14.47 | 85.53 | 71.18 |
| 5 | Koraput | 30.87 | 69.13 | 21.33 |
| 6 | Malkangiri | 17.88 | 82.12 | 54.21 |
| 7 | Mayurbhanj | 32.95 | 89.38 | 42.16 |
| 8 | Nawarangpur | 31.87 | 68.13 | 46.54 |
| 9 | Rayagada | 18.17 | 81.83 | 39.79 |
| 10 | Sundergarh | 21.87 | 78.13 | 51.04 |
Source-District Statistical Handbooks, 2005 and Revenue Department, Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, 2006-07 (published in UNDP status report on ‘Land Rights and Ownership in Odisha’, August, 2008)
Table-2 Forest Area diverted to Non-forest use in Odisha
| Sl.No | Year | Number of Projects | Area diverted to non-forest use (in hectare) |
| 1 | 1982 | 1 | 3.43 |
| 2 | 1983 | 4 | 124.02 |
| 3 | 1984 | 18 | 2000.89 |
| 4 | 1985 | 5 | 517.38 |
| 5 | 1986 | 3 | 770.38 |
| 6 | 1987 | 5 | 952.90 |
| 7 | 1988 | 9 | 975.63 |
| 8 | 1989 | 13 | 1737.38 |
| 9 | 1990 | 24 | 2714.92 |
| 10 | 1991 | 5 | 3.17 |
| 11 | 1992 | 7 | 508.84 |
| 12 | 1993 | 8 | 4729.25 |
| 13 | 1994 | 3 | 788.92 |
| 14 | 1995 | 6 | 317.94 |
| 15 | 1996 | 12 | 1354.61 |
| 16 | 1997 | 14 | 1902.49 |
| 17 | 1998 | 53 | 4722.35 |
| 18 | 1999 | NA | NA |
| 19 | 2000-01 | 27 | 1219.06 |
| 20 | 2001-02 | 20 | 1711.74 |
| 21 | 2002-03 | 15 | 508.18 |
| 22 | 2003-04 | 23 | 1493.71 |
| 23 | 2004-05 | 9 | 1274.39 |
| 24 | 2005-06 | 28 | 2207.23 |
| 25 | 2006-07 | 17 | 911.83 |
| 26 | 2007-08 | 20 | 1802.58 |
| 27 | 2008-09 | 14 | 723.74 |
| 28 | 2009-10 | 13 | 1008.68 |
| 29 | Total | 376 | 36985.64 |
Source: Government of India, State of Forest Report,1991 and 1997,Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi, Government of Odisha (2011), Economic Survey, Planning 2010-2011, Planning and Coordination Department, Bhubaneswar
Table-3- Cultivators and Agricultural labourer among Tribals in Odisha (1961-2001)
| Census Years | Cultivators (%) | Agricultural labourer (%) |
| 1961 | 62.8 | 22.2 |
| 1971 | 52.60 | 36.9 |
| 1981 | 52.15 | 36.31 |
| 1991 | 50.82 | 38.27 |
| 2001 | 33.3 | 46.91 |
Source– Census of India-1961, 1971,1981,1991,2001
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24. Saravanan, V (2008 )- Economic Exploitation of Forest Resources in South India During the Pre-Forest Act Colonial era, 1793-1882, International Forestry Review, Commonwealth Forestry Association.
25. The Hindu (2013)- Odisha is the most backward, Bihar comes next, Gujarat is less developed, Says Raghuram Panel, September,27th , New Delhi.
26. United Nations Environment Programme (2003) – Environmental Refugees, Nairobi.
27. Verma, R.C (2002) – Indian Tribes Through The Ages, Published by Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi.
28. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Odisha
29. www.planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/present/Odisha.pdf
30. www.vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/scheduled-tribes-welfare/ministry-of-tribal-welfare