Livelihood sources of Gond Tribes: A study of village Mangalnaar, Bhairamgarh block, Chhattisgarh

Abstract

India has the largest concentration of tribal population of the world with 8.6 per cent population (2011).
Gond is the largest tribe in India and most of its concentration is in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Jharkhand. As most of the population of Chhattisgarh are tribes
(30.6 per cent, 2011), popularly called a tribal state. Gond tribes are mostly concentrated in the southern
part of the Bastar region, in seven districts and village Mangalnaar comes under district Bijapur. The Gond
tribes are known as Maria and Muriya in Bastar region. Majority of the population of Mangalnaar village
are Gonds followed by Yadav. Some of the Gond families have got converted to Christian. The study is
based on personal observations, interviews and collecting information about livelihood sources of Gond
community, how much they collect and earn from it. Most of them are dependent on traditional sources of
livelihood like forest and forest-based products