Abhujmadia tribe
Under 'Maad Bachao Abhiyan' security forces killed over 100 Maoists in 2025 targeting elimination by March 2026 via roads/camps/mining, but sparking tribal displacement in historic Maoist "liberated zone."
About
- The Abhujmadia tribe is a sub-group of the Gond tribe Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) primarily residing in the Narayanpur, Dantewada, and Abujhmad areas of the Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh.
- The tribe is ancestral and patriarchal, living mostly in remote and hilly forest areas known as "unknown hilly area," which is the meaning of "Abujhmad".
- Population estimates vary: around 19,401–22,000+ (early 2000s data, now over 22,000); up to 40,000 per 2011 Census in Abujhmad area.
- Ancestral and patriarchal society organized into clans (dynasties) with a strong headman (Manjhi) system for justice, culture, and decisions.
- Follows animism, worshipping nature spirits, deities, and ancestors.
- Proto-Australoid racial traits: medium height, strong build, complexion from fair to dark, brown/black eyes, oval/round faces.
- Livelihood via subsistence/shifting (Podu/Penda/Pedda) agriculture (rice, maize, pulses), hunting (deer, rabbit), fishing, gathering forest produce;
- Traditional semi-nomadic housing: raised wooden platforms with bamboo enclosures, animal sheds nearby; shifting to permanent villages due to bans on shifting cultivation.
- Cultural practices include community rituals, Bastar Dussehra participation, folk songs linking origins to animals/birds/South Bastar; property shared communally.
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