Bondos and their response to development

In the wild and remote south-western tip of Malkangiri uplands live some sparsely populated primitive tribes. The Remo speaking Bondo tribe of South Munda language group is one among them. While the mountainous tract inhabited by the Bondos enjoy a pleasant climate for its high elevation of about 3,000 ft., above the sea-level, the rest of the Malkangiri subdivision, which is comparatively a flat plain land dotted with small hillocks, has an extreme climate with oppressive hot and humid summer and severe cold winter.
The Bondos are considered a primitive tribal community. In the identification of primitive groups both the Central and State Governments have adopted the following three criteria :

(1) Pre-agricultural level of technology,

(2) Low level of literacy and

(3) Stagnant or diminishing population

The Bondo tribe conforms to the second norm and not to the first and third norms. The tribe's means of livelihood is not exclusively the slash-and-burn cultivation in the hill-slopes which is the distinguishing feature of a primitive tribe. It is practised in combination with the raising of rice on irrigated terracedfields in the valleys.