Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/398

KONDH exercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, and with the previous sanction of the Governor-General in Council, the Governor in Council is pleased to prohibit absolutely all persons from recruiting, engaging, inducing, or assisting any Native of India to emigrate from the tracts known as the scheduled districts in the district of Ganjam to any labour district of Assam."

In 1908, the Madras Government approved of certain proposals made by the Collector of Ganjam for utilising the services of the Kondhs in the conservancy of the forests in the Pondakhol Agency. The following is a summary of these proposals.* The chief difficulty to be contended against in Pondakhol is podu cultivation. This cultivation is not only devastating the hill tops and upper slopes, which should be kept well covered to preserve water for the upper reaches of the Rushikulya river, the chief source of irrigation in Ganjam, but is also the origin of most of the forest fires that rage throughout Pondakhol in the hot weather. The District Forest Officer, in discussing matters with the Kondhs, was told by some of the villagers that they would forego poduing if they had cattle to plough the lands in the plains and valleys. The supply of buffaloes would form the compensation for a right relinquished. The next aim should be to give the people work in the non-cultivation season, which is from the middle of January to the middle of July. This luckily coincides with the fire season. There is an abundance of useful work that the Kondhs can be engaged in, e.g., rendering the demarcation lines permanent, making fire lines, constructing roads, and building inspection sheds. The