Konda Doras on the hill Need Water !

Kondas on the Sullippokkan Hill

Philipose Vaidyar

Konda or Konda Dora is a native tribe who live in Andhra Pradesh and surrounding parts of neighbouring states.  Konda Dora people are mainly seen in the Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and East Godavari districts. 

Konda Dora people are animists and worship spirits of their ancestors.

They are also well populated in the Arakku valley. Let’s go over to one of their most difficult settlements on the Sullippokkan hill.

Sullippokkan village is 80 kilometers away from Vizag or Vishakapatanam. There are good roads, winding through the Arakku hills and valleys. But to reach Sullippokkan, we need to trek at least an hour through the steep hill.

The terrain is tough and the single foot path is too difficult to climb.

There are about 40 families living on this hill.  To have living here, everything had to be carried as head-loads. There was no electricity here or a well to draw water from. Open wells dug in the past had no water. A rig cannot climb up here to dig a tube well.

However, the Konda Dora people do a little farming here- paddy and tobacco- depending on rain and the thin stream that passes nearby. They also tend cattle and goats. 

There is no shop here to buy anything. To buy some salt or a match box, they need to climb down the hill.

There is a small stream uphill but it cannot reach the village. It dries off in the summer. The only way out seemed to be building a bund here to store water to last through the summer.

Viji, my friend and guide to this village, had been helping them to build a bund to store more water. Electricity lines had come to the village by now and they could pump it to a tank in the village. But more often the lines lack current. 

Their plight during this summer is still to be known.  The Khonda Dora people on Sullippokkan village need water, living and sustaining water.

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