Adilabad Gond Tribal Forest Bamboo Ecology Maharashtra Border

Adilabad district in northern Telangana bordering Maharashtra is the Gondi tribal homeland where Gond, Kolam, and Thoti communities practise traditional forest-based livelihoods — tendu leaf collection, bamboo craft, minor forest produce — and shifting cultivation (bewar/podu) on the slopes of the Sahyadri ranges that extend from Maharashtra into Telangana. Adilabad's Kolam tribe (PVTG) uses a unique system of pictographic tattooing and maintains traditional bamboo craft of making musical instruments, baskets, and containers. The Kawal Tiger Reserve in Adilabad's forested northern hills is Telangana's only Tiger Reserve, protecting a forest corridor connecting to the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.