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(THE GIST OF PIB) Jenu Kuruba community

(APRIL-2024)

For decades, the indigenous Jenu Kuruba tribe residing in the forests of Western Ghats were denied their basic rights and cut off from opportunities for development.

Jenu in Kannada means honey and kuruba is the caste. As the name suggest Jenu Kurubas are honey gatherers.
They are traditional honey gathering tribe and are among the original inhabitants of the forests of the Western Ghats that stretch over three States – Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
They live in small settlements called Hadi.
Occupation: The main occupation used to be food gathering in the forests, collection of minor forest produce in the forests, collection of minor forest produce including honey
They practice shifting cultivation, leading to a nomadic lifestyle.
Social life: People of this community live a semi-nomadic lifestyle which is not maintained by rulers, police, centralized visible forces or religious monasteries; but by the technique of its own discipline and diffused power.
The pattern is that it is maintained at each settlement level with a head-man (yajamana) and a ritual head / shaman (gudda).