Saora

The objective behind the publication of a popular series of booklets on the various tribal communities is to make known their particular socio-economic characteri stics and cultural profiles to the general public. These booklets are meant for those who are not very well informed about the Scheduled Tribes but are keen on knowing about such communities. Keeping such a target group in view, it was felt that the ethnographic and developmental accounts of these tribes should be presen ted in such a manner as would create and sustain interest in the readers without being too scholastic or technical.

Demographically, some tribal communities are very large and some, very small. In the matter of develop ment also, there are large variations-some of them are quite progressive while a few small communities are still a primitive stage. These booklets would cover both the numerically large groups as well as the small commu nities which are presently recognised as primitive tribes.

The Tribal & Harijan Research-cum-Training Institute (THRTI) of the Government of Orissa in the Department. of Harijan & Tribal Welfare has prepared these booklets. The booklets being published now on the Bondo, the Juang, the Saora and the Kondh tribes are the beginn ing of a series of such publications on various tribal communities of Orissa.