“Displacement, migration and occupational change among the project displaced tribal communities in India: a study of peddagadda reservoir”

Abstract

Due to construction of Peddagedda Reservoir in the agency area of Vizianagaram district about 184 tribal families from seven tribal villages were affected and displaced. The project affected tribal families were rehabilitated in colonies at five different places, located nearer to the reservoir. After displacement, about 14 families were migrated to other places in search of livelihood. Displaced tribal people were forced to change their traditional occupation, basically for survival and subsistence. This research paper presents a case study of displaced tribal people of the Peddagedda reservoir,who belongs to Konda dora, Manne dora, and Nooka dora tribes. It is an anthropological holistic study, employed Anthropological Ethnographic Methodology for collection of empirical data. The research article is mostly descriptive in nature and comprises of both semantic and scientific explanations. The research paper forms the part of the major research project titled "Displacement, marginalization and exclusion of tribes due to construction of dams and reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh" sponsored by University Grants Commission, New Delhi. It highlights the problems of displaced tribal people, specifically forced migration and occupational change. It also reveals that, how the enforced and involuntary displacement leads to social exclusion, in addition to various impoverishment risks such as landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of common resources and social disarticulation. All these factors coincide with the Michael cernea's observations on the issue of human displacement on the name of development projects.