Tribal Regions and Population of Odisha

Tribal Demography

Odisha is home to one of the largest tribal populations in India, both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the state’s population. As per the 2011 Census, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) population of Odisha stood at 9.59 million (95.9 lakh), representing 22.85 per cent of the state’s total population — substantially higher than the national average of 8.6 per cent. The state is home to 62 tribal communities recognised under the Constitution, of which 13 have been classified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) — the highest number of any state in India. The PVTGs of Odisha include the Dongria Kondh, Kutia Kondh, Lanjia Saora, Bonda, Didayi, Juang, Mankirdia, Lodha, Chuktia Bhunjia, Hill Kharia, Paudi Bhuyan, Erenga Kharias, and Birhor. These groups are characterised by pre-agricultural or early agricultural technology, extremely low literacy rates, stagnant or declining populations, and subsistence-level economies.

Spatial Distribution of Tribes

The tribal population is not uniformly distributed across Odisha. The districts with the highest concentration of tribal population — ranging from 50 per cent to over 75 per cent of the total district population — form a contiguous belt that includes Mayurbhanj (largest absolute ST population), Sundargarh, Kendujhar, and Deogarh in the north; Kalahandi, Nuapada, and Bolangir in the west-central area; and Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Gajapati, and Kandhamal in the south. This belt corresponds closely with the physiographic regions of the Northern Plateau and the Eastern Ghats — hilly, forested, relatively inaccessible, and with limited agricultural potential, which historically buffered these communities from the more intensive forms of settlement and state control that characterised the coastal plains and the central valleys.

Tribal Economy and Livelihoods

The tribal economy in Odisha is predominantly based on agriculture, forest produce collection, and wage labour. Agriculture is mostly rain-fed and practised on small, fragmented holdings with low productivity. In more remote areas, particularly among the Kondh, Saora, and Juang communities, shifting cultivation (known as podu or dahi) was the traditional agricultural practice. In this system, patches of forest on hillslopes were cleared and burned, cultivated for a few years, and then left fallow for a regeneration period. The Forest Department and agricultural agencies have encouraged the transition to settled agriculture on terraced and valley-bottom lands, but this transition has not been smooth or complete in all areas, and podu continues in diminished form in some of the remotest forested tracts.

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) — including sal seeds, mahua flowers and seeds, tamarind, honey, kendu (tendu) leaves for bidi rolling (a major source of seasonal employment for tribal women), bamboo, medicinal plants, and various gums and resins — are integral to the tribal economy. The collection and sale of these products, often through government-regulated cooperative societies and the Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation (TDCC), provides a significant cash income. However, the supply chains are often opaque, and the prices received by primary collectors are a small fraction of the final market value. Wage labour, both within the local economy (agricultural labour, forest work, construction under MGNREGA) and through seasonal migration to other states, has become an increasingly important component of tribal livelihoods, reflecting the inadequacy of local land and forest resources to provide a sustainable year-round subsistence.

Tribal Development Challenges

Despite decades of targeted tribal development programmes, the tribal regions of Odisha continue to face severe developmental deficits. Poverty is pervasive, with the poverty headcount ratio in tribal districts being among the highest in the country. Literacy, particularly female literacy, lags far behind the state average; many PVTGs have literacy rates below 20 per cent. Healthcare indicators — infant mortality, maternal mortality, malnutrition — are strikingly worse in tribal areas, due to a combination of geographic inaccessibility, cultural barriers, and inadequate public health infrastructure. Land alienation has been a persistent historical grievance: tribal lands have been lost to non-tribal settlers, mining companies, industrial projects, and large dams, often through processes that violated the protective provisions of land laws. The recognition of forest rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (the Forest Rights Act), which allows tribal communities to claim individual and community rights over forest land they have traditionally used, is a significant policy instrument, but its implementation in Odisha has been uneven, with many legitimate claims remaining unresolved.

The Niyamgiri case (discussed in the bauxite note) highlighted the emerging assertion of tribal rights, particularly the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) under the Forest Rights Act. The Maoist (Left-Wing Extremist) insurgency, which has affected several tribal districts — particularly Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, and parts of Kalahandi and Bolangir — has both drawn support from and inflicted suffering upon tribal populations, disrupting development activities, schools, and healthcare services, and creating a climate of insecurity. The path to tribal development in Odisha involves not merely the infusion of resources through government programmes but the empowerment of tribal communities to control their resources (land, forest, minerals), determine their development priorities, and participate effectively in the political and economic processes that shape their lives.