Koraput Dongria Kondh Tribal Seed Diversity Niyamgiri

Koraput district in the tribal highlands of south Odisha is one of India's most significant centres of agricultural biodiversity, where Kondh, Koya, Gadaba, and Poraja tribal communities maintain "seed sovereignty" by cultivating over 100 indigenous rice varieties, 70+ vegetable species, and 40+ tuber types on their shifting and terraced cultivation plots — a gene bank maintained through millennia of community seed selection. The Dongria Kondh of Koraput's Niyamgiri hills successfully resisted Vedanta Resources' bauxite mining of their sacred Niyamgiri mountain in a landmark 2013 Supreme Court judgment that gave village gram sabhas the constitutional right to decide on projects affecting their traditional forest territory. Koraput's tribal market at Jeypore is a kaleidoscopic weekly market where Kondh women bring forest produce, indigenous vegetables, and handicraft in exchange for cloth and metal goods — one of eastern India's most vibrant tribal markets.