Nuapada  - There is a local song that poignantly captures the reality of the tendu leaf gatherers of Orissa’s Nuapada district: “Chho chhoko, bhunji loka, patar tudle laagsi bhoka (we are Bhunj tribals/while plucking tendu leaves, we feel hunger).”

Goalpara- A bumper crop during the last agriculture season, the birth of a baby boy one month ahead of 'Magh Bihu' - the harvest festival that falls in mid-January - and her husband's promise to buy a two-wheeler with his increased income as a small trader in the East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, were reasons enough for Himani Rabha, 27, to be happy with life. The Rabha tribal woman from Teklipara I village, located in Goalpara district of lower Assam, along the Assam-Meghayala border, however, could never have imagined that just a few days later she would have to flee her home to live in sub-human conditions in a makeshift relief camp.