A trader tips a handful of dried mango slices onto a tarpaulin sheet and examines them carefully. Around him, weighing scales swing into action, motorcycles edge through the crowd and voices rise and fall in a dozen simultaneous negotiations. The Monday santha (weekly market) at Kalyansingpur, a small town at the foothills of Odisha’s Niyamgiri range, is underway.
Women from Dongria Kondh tribe buying dried fish at the Monday shandy at Kalyan Singpur, a small town at the foothills of Odisha’s Niyamgiri range. Photo: K R Deepak
| Photo Credit:
By 10 am, sacks of dried mangoes are piled high across the market. Dongria Kondh families from villages across the hills wait patiently to sell produce gathered from forests and cultivated on distant slopes.
A traditional dagger secured in the hair bun of a woman from the Dongria Kondh Tribe in the Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha. The distinctive practice forms part of the tribe’s cultural identity, with the dagger serving both practical and protective purposes in their daily lives amid the rugged hill terrain.
