The Chenchus
November 2008, Sarlapalli Village, Nallamalla Forest.
The Chenchus are a group of adivasis (literally original inhabitants) who live in the central hill regions of Andhra Pradesh. Most of their population lives within the protected Nallamalla Forest in Mahbubnagar district. They follow a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. A steadily increasing exposure to civilization has brought a host of problems for them. The land on which they have been living for generations has been declared as a protected tiger reserve by the government. Therefore, there are moves to displace them completely from the forest area and resettle them elsewhere. The Chenchus are shy, wary of strangers and government efforts to introduce them to agriculture. They want to be left alone by civilization and allowed to live as they have been living for generations. But due to the steady disappearance of their traditional lifestyle under pressure from civilization the Chenchus are slowly dying out like the tiger which the government is trying to protect by displacing the Chenchus. Over the next few days I’ll try to highlight some of the many problems faced by the Chenchus in their struggle to survive.
(To read this photo essay in sequence from the beginning please go here.)
These photos were shot during a preliminary shoot for a documentary film on the displacement issue of the Chenchus that I’m working on with a filmmaker. We visited 3 villages on that day along with our producer (who is also a doctor) that have been exposed most to civilization and thereby face the most problems. There are many more Chenchu hamlets deep in the jungle that can only be reached after a hard trek. We limited ourselves to 3 villages for the preliminary shoot as they were most accessible.
