Adivasi Continue Struggle For Securing Tribal Status For Their Villages In AP

KAKINADA: As many as 554 villages in Andhra Pradesh, including 240 in Srikakulam district, 182 in Vizianagaram, 91 in Visakhapatnam, 40 in Kakinada and one village in Eluru district, are eligible to get tribal status so they can be included in the 5th Schedule to benefit from it.

However, non-tribal people in such villages are reluctant to have the villages declared tribal as their properties may fall under Act 1/70. This means that lands in a particular village cannot be sold to non-tribal individuals.

However, Adivasi are pressuring the government to include the villages in the tribal category.

Three Girijana Sanghams have been fighting for the same in the AP High Court since 2021.

According to Adivasi MahaSabha legal advisor Inapuram Suryanarayana, the Supreme Court in April 2022 directed the state government to resolve the issue within four weeks. Due to non-implementation of the directive, Adivasi MahaSabha filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 2025.

Giving the background, Suryanarayana said that in 1980, the AP government had sent proposals to the central government to include 40 villages of Andhra Pradesh in the 5th schedule and declare them as tribal villages. However, there has been no reaction from the center yet on the issue. Meanwhile, 19 more villages have emerged in Kakinada district, where Adivasi population is more than 50 percent.

In this regard, Kakinada district collector Sagili Shan Mohan submitted the details to the government’s counsel on December 3, 2025, so that the same could be taken up in the Supreme Court.