The Birhor is a wandering, simple, shy and god-fearing and little-known forest dwelling tribal community. The Birhor people live in bands. They are a nomadic and hunter-gatherer group of people. The term Birhor is derived from two words, ’Bir’ means forest and ‘hol’ means man and thus they call themselves as man of forest. For their traditional skill of rope making, trapping and devouring the flesh of monkey, their neighbours call them ‘Mankidi, or ‘Mankidia’. The Birhor falls under the category of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and are exclusively found in Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The nomadic Birhors have been settled down and number of development projects have started. This has usher in an era of paradigmatic shift in the economy, social practices, culture, dependency on forest etc. This shift has caused the erstwhile nomadic community to loose a lot whether their customary practices or dietary habits or religious practices. It has on the contrary resulted in occupation diversification, access to education and to be a part of developmental programmes. Despite these changes, the Birhors still conduct ‘Disum sendra’ i.e., annual hunting expedition. Still some hunting practices are observed in this community.
