Tribal Communities of the Northern Eastern Ghats: Forest Dependence in the Context of Changing Climate

India’s Eastern Ghats mountain region, spread across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu states, is  predominantly inhabited by several forest-dwelling tribal communities who have distinct lifestyles and livelihoods linked to the forested landscape. Most of the Northern Eastern Ghats (NEG) is placed under the 5th Schedule [under Article 244(1) of the Constitution], which grants special provisions for the administration of Scheduled TribesScheduled tribes [Article 366(25)]. The  major forest dwelling tribal communities in the NEG include the primarily hill-dwelling Konda Reddis, plains-dwelling Koya and Nayakpod cultivators, the recently settled Gutta Koyas (also known as Maria Gonds in Chhattisgarh), displaced from insurgency-affected Chhattisgarh and  other groups such as the Gadaba, Bagatha, Savara, Valmiki, and Paraja tribes. These forest-dwelling communities live across the ‘Agency’ (Schedule 5 areas) hill tracts of East and West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh. This study conducted close to a hundred and forty interviews with three tribal groups (Konda Reddys, Koyas, and Nayakpods) and other non-tribal communities in the Papikonda NP, the sole National ParkNational park in the NEG of Andhra Pradesh, and its buffer forests over a three-year period from 2014–2017. Results from the interviews indicate a high dependence of these communities on forest resources, particularly through shifting cultivationShifting cultivation, collection of minor forest produceMinor forest produce and hunting that contributed to food and livelihood security. Community dependence varied with tribal groups and their location inside or outside the forest. Communities perceived significant forest degradation in the NEG over the past three decades, driven by plantations, agriculture, and dam building, and their observations of climate change were coupled with these land cover changes. I discuss how communities are adapting in the context of land cover change, climate change, forest management, forest rights and development schemes being implemented in recent years across the Northern Eastern Ghats.