Context: Recently, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has asked the Union Home Ministry and Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha to submit a detailed report on the status of the Gotti Koya tribals.

About Gotti Koya Tribe

• This is one of the few multi-racial and multi-lingual tribal communities of India.

• The main population of Koyas is seen in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

• They speak Koya, which falls in the Dravidian language. It is said to be very close to the Gondi, but it has undergone a lot of Telugu influences.

• They traditionally practice Podu form of shifting cultivation that has for long time been an economic survival versus environmental sustenance issue.

• Earn a livelihood by animal husbandry and minor forest produce.

• The most important fair festooned by Koyas is the Sammakka Saralamma Jatra once in two years on full moon day of the Magha Masam (January or February) at Medaram village in Mulug taluk of Warangal district.

• They enjoyed ST status in Chattisgarh but they are not conferred with ST status in the migrated states like Telangana.

• All Koya are one of five sub-divisions known as gotrams. Every Koya is born into a clan, and he cannot change it.

• The Koyas have a patrilineal and patrilocal family. The family is called “Kutum”. Of these forms of family, the nuclear form is the major one.

• The Koya is generally monogamous.