In the dense forest nearly 10 km from the main road on Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border in Kunavaram mandal of the district, three stone memorials greet visitors to the tiny village of Ramachandrapuram, inhibited by the Gutti Koya tribespeople.
The stone slabs, each the size of a man, are the tribe’s tributes to its physician, priest and village elder, who, when they were alive, provided invaluable services to them.
Ramachandrapuram was formed by over 40 families of the Gutti Koya tribe fleeing the Naxal-hit regions in Chhattisgarh during the 2005-11 conflict between Chhattisgarh government-sponsored Salwa Judum and Naxalites. This settlement comprises those who fled the erstwhile Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh and now falls in India’s Red Corridor, where Left Wing Extremist groups are still active.
