.

jewels of the jungle, originally uploaded by Sayantan Bera.

One of India’s most primitive and ‘backward’ tribe, the Baigas, still lead a hand to mouth existence: from hunter gatherers their transformation into settled cultivators has been a painful process of adjustment. 200 kilometers from Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori district, they live in the hills amid picturesque Sal forests in small settlements far away from the cacophony of the civilized world.

Shy and gentle in disposition a few decades earlier they would run and hide in the jungles when outsiders entered their settlements. The entry of Bollywood stars amid hanging corns, however, speaks of an imminent change.