An IAS officer who has had much to do with forestry in Orissa points to the paradox. 'On the one hand, you have the Koyas cutting strictly for their personal needs with sickles. They mostly want the young bamboo. On the other, you have the companies bulldozing everything in sight, on a mass scale. Young, or old bamboos, whatever the size, variety or age, it's all the same to them. If there are huge bamboo forests at all, it is in part because the Koya have nursed these with such care. But it is the traditional and controlled activity of the tribe that becomes illegal.' But why cut off the Koyas from bamboo while allowing private companies to access it? Sadhashiv Hanthal, a Dalit living in the mainly Koya village of Pitaghata, has an answer. 'From the companies, the government gets tax. From the Koya, what do they get?'
P Sainath, 'Everybody Loves a Good Drought'
