Pemena Bamboo Basket Weaving Heritage of Adilabad Gond

The Gond community of Adilabad practises the pemena tradition of bamboo craft — producing a wide range of household and agricultural implements from locally harvested bamboo. Key products include large conical grain storage baskets (kila), fish traps (jagali), and flat winnowing trays (sup) woven in distinctive Gondi geometric patterns using split bamboo strips. The craft uses Dendrocalamus strictus (male bamboo) found in the district's forests, harvested in the dry season when the bamboo is strongest. Young men learn pemena from their fathers over several years, with the more complex storage basket forms requiring several seasons to master. Gond basket cooperatives in Adilabad have begun marketing pemena products to urban craft buyers through Telangana tribal welfare networks.