HIGH LEVEL OFFICIAL PROBE INTO BONDA TRIBE ROW: ODISHA CM ORDERS

HIGH LEVEL OFFICIAL PROBE INTO BONDA TRIBE ROW: ODISHA CM ORDERS 25/01/2012
ODISHA NEWS:


Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik orders high-level official probe into Bonda tribe row. Chie Minister said after getting the inquiry report the state government will take action against the culprits. It should be noted that media reports alleges tour operators in Odisha have been offering titillating “human safaris” that provide a close look at the Bonda tribe. Travel agents who organize a dekko at Odisha's Bonda tribes are now under the international scanner. The ancient tribe numbering close to approximately 5,000, live in the isolated hill regions of the Malkangiri district of Odisha.


The Bondas who have lived in near isolation among the higher hills are fiercely independent, stubborn and aggressive tribe. The Bondas known themselves as Remo(men) are a small tribe of the type now often called Austro-Asiatic country is the wild and mountainnous region north-west of Machakunda river, and here they have preserved themselves comparatively unaffected by the march of civilisation. Indeed, by plainsmen and officials, the Bondas are regarded as entirely savage, almost as the classic savage type. The strange dress and appearance of their unfamilier tounge they speak a different Astro-Asiatic language.


The inaccessibility of their abode seperate them from other tribes of the district The origin and affiliations of the Bondas are obscure, but one may accept the possiblility that they are members of a group of Austro-Asiatic tribes which at some remote date took shelter in the wild Jeypore hills. There is every reason to suppose that the Bondas have changed very little during their long history and in them one can have a change of studying a type of character and it's material expression that may be millennia old. The bondas have been enlisted as a Scheduled Tribes. Bondas are the oldest tribal people of Malkangiri District.They live on the mountains at the height of 3000 feet. In 1971 census their number was 5,245 and in 1981 census they were 5,895 in numbers but in 1991 census they were decreased to a number of 5,129 in which male number was 2,414 and female number was 2,715.


These people live in Bonda Hill under Khairput Block.They are mainly two types like Ontal and Kilo. Bondas are found of Podu Cultivation and Bonda ladies help them in this job. In Bonda community the bride is older than the groom Ladies of the Bonda community are half nacked. In the month of Magha "Patkhanda Yatra" at Mudulipada is the main festivals of Bondas.By nature Bondas are short temper and they get angry at the simplest thing and forget the relationship and commit murder. Murder is a simple thing for Bondas, because of this a lot of person has been life impressioned at the Koraput Jail due to this Bonda population has been reduced a lot during the last decade. Here it is important that this community should be taken care from its extinct.

They still practice the barter systems, exchanging the produce of their fileds for articles of daily use. An intresting feature of the Bonda marriage is that Bonda girls prefer to marry younger boys, so they may have someone to earn for them in their old age.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA, BUREAU CHIEF, THESE DAYS, ODISHA