Tribals who have been cultivating small portions of land for a sustainable living in some of the non-Scheduled Tribe villages and hamlets, predominantly inhabited by PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) such as the Khonds and the Konda Doras in Anakapalli district of Andhra Pradesh, are now a threatened lot. Any day a private person accompanied by a few government officials can move into their villages with earth movers and raze their settlement, which have been their homes since the last four to five decades. Post-bifurcation of the districts by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, these mandals and villages have been carved out of the composite Visakhapatnam district to be now a part of Anakapalli district.
This is not the case with a few villages in Anakapalli; in all, this problem is present across 553 villages in Andhra Pradesh and 252 villages in Telangana, taking the total number to 805 villages, across the two Telugu-speaking States.
On January 26, 1950, when the Constitution came into force, the Fifth Schedule gave special protection to villages that were predominantly inhabited by tribals across various States. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution catered to the entire tribal belt of the Northeast. The authorities had demarcated the Fifth Schedule areas, including in Andhra Pradesh, based on documents provided by British rulers.
