Jagdalpur Indravati Tiger Reserve Abujhmarh Gondi

The Indravati Tiger Reserve in Bijapur district (adjacent to Bastar's Jagdalpur) protects a significant Tiger Reserve in the Dandakaranya forest, one of the most bio-diverse but remote forest areas of central India adjoining the Abujhmarh (unmapped forest) — a 4,000 sq km roadless central Indian highland that remained unsurveyed until 2017. The Abujhmarh is home to the Maria Gond sub-tribe who maintained almost no external contact until the 1960s and whose traditions of ancestor worship, headgear, and iron bead ornaments are documented by anthropologists as examples of near-pristine tribal material culture. The Bastar-Bijapur landscape has been affected by the Maoist (Naxal) insurgency since 1980, with competing claims between security operations and tribal rights creating ongoing tensions in Bastar's forest villages.