India Matters: The fight for food

Till 20 years ago, the Nalamalla forests in Andhra Pradesh provided the Chenchus with most of their food - the rest they bought at local markets in exchange for gum, honey, tubers, mohuya flowers and tendu leaves. Today, the tribals have little access to these jungles and its natural wealth, and the entire community - 40,000 - of them, earn barely Rs 6,000 a year from selling forest produce. If it was not for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which pays Rs 1200, for 10 days of labour every month through the year, the people of Srirampur village in Mehboobnagar district believe they would have starved.