Guardians of ‘green gold’ in Godavari Valley

It’s January 31, a Friday. As the clock struck eight, Kondla Sambhu Reddi, 62, puts on his off-white dhoti and a wrinkled white shirt to go to the weekly shandy. He steps out of his wooden hut and checks the dried bamboo shoots hanging on a string in the verandah.

The weakened current of the stream flowing close by his hut brings a smile on his face as he knows that it is an indicator of the onset of summer.

Sambhu brings home the best fish available at the shandy to cook and relish his tribe’s ancient delicacy. “We welcome summer with the delicacy made of the fish caught in our stream and the dry bamboo shoots. This is our unique tradition, a cherished memory of our Konda Reddi tribe that has been passed on for generations,” he says.

Nearly 50 Konda Reddi families live in Alluri Sitarama Raju district’s Aaku Maamidi Kota village, where the biggest weekly shandies on the tri-State border of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are held

“Preparing dishes with bamboo shoots to welcome the summer is not a community affair. However, every family enjoys cooking and eating them as the catch of fish and prawn are abundant in our stream at the beginning of the summer,” says Sambhu’s son Nagi Reddi, 35.

“Our tribe collects and consumes the tender shoots of the Konda Veduru bamboo variety [Dendrocalamus strictus], which grows only on the hill plains,” he says.

After dropping out of college in his final year of B.Sc, he assists his father in commercial agriculture, primarily cultivating Annato, a seed used in lipstick production.

The Konda Reddi tribe is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) located in the Godavari Valley of Andhra Pradesh. Women in this tribe have a high fertility rate, with most having more than five children. As of 2024, a Konda Reddi woman from Muntha Maamidi village in the Maredumilli Agency of Alluri Sitharama Raju district, holds the record for the highest number of children—11 in total.

Sambhu lives in Aaku Maamidi Kota village, nearly 27 kilometres deep inside the Maredumilli forest cover on the ancient Rampa-Malkangiri tribal trade route, which is still a stronghold of Left Wing Extremist (LWE) Groups in India’s Red Corridor spreading along the Sabari-Sileru-Godavari rivers.

A prized catch

The Konda Veduru is considered a prized catch by the Konda Reddis.

Native to South Asia, Konda Veduru occupies more than 53% of India’s total area under bamboo. It is also extensively used by the Konda Reddi and Koya tribes of the Godavari Valley to make musical instruments.

“Konda Veduru is the dominant species among the eight bamboo species spread over 2.25 lakh hectares in the Valley. It spreads across more than half of the total area,” says R. Srinivas, State Silviculturist of the Regional Forest Research Centre, Rajamahendravaram. Most of the area under Konda Veduru species grows naturally.

The Konda Reddis strictly adhere to one precaution: boiling bamboo shoots, fresh or dry, before adding them to any dish.

“Boiling the bamboo shoots is a must. We can eat them by adding some red chilli and salt. This is the easiest recipe of Konda Veduru,” says Pallala Bojjamma, an elderly woman and mother of five, from Perika Valasa, 15 km from Aaku Maamidi Kota.

“Every season, we serve food made of bamboo shoots for all—children, pregnant women, and even lactating mothers in our families. We believe that the bamboo has various health and nutritional benefits. It is one of the staple foods naturally available in our forest,” adds Bojjamma.

Classified as Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), the tribals are entitled to collect any bamboo species in the Valley. They are also entitled to collect it from the Reserve Forests for their dietary, economic, and household purposes.

It is hard to find a Konda Reddi household that doesn’t preserve bamboo shoots for consumption during winter and summer.

“Our extensive search for bamboo shoots lasts eight weeks, between July and August. The shoots that come up during the first spell of rain are collected, and a large portion of the collection is consumed during the monsoon itself,” adds Bojjamma, boasting that it is only the women in the tribe that venture into the forest and collect the bamboo shoots in the early hours to collect the shoots.

Gourmet meal

Renowned Anthropologist Christoph-von-Furer-Haimendorf has observed in his book, The Reddis of Bison Hills (1945): “During the heavy rains of the south-west monsoon edible herbs spring up all over the jungle and are eaten boiled both in gruel and curry..the women cut larger quantities of the new shoots of bamboo and, peeling off the outer skin, grate the tender stem with a small knife before cooking”. Haimendorf had stayed with the Konda Reddi tribes in the Godavari valley.

Eight decades after Haimendorft visited the Godavari Valley, despite the advent of many changes in their lifestyles and exposure to the mainstream, the Konda Reddis continue to consume bamboo shoots as they firmly believe in its health benefits.

Meanwhile, upon learning about its nutritional value and savouriness, other tribes and non-tribes have also begun to consume Konda Veduru.

The Konda Reddis prepare a range of dishes with bamboo shoots, commonly known as Kommu Koora, in which shoots are mixed with daal, cereals, chicken, and mutton.

Konda Reddi woman Pallala Santha, 40, of Periki Valasa village, says, “In summer, we treat our guests with dishes made with bamboo shoots as a mark of high regard for them, and they also enjoy the food and look forward to the next lunch invitation.”

She adds that some portions of tender shoots are sent to non-tribal friends during the monsoon.

The nutritional value of the Konda Veduru has been evaluated by P. Nongdam and Leimapokpam Tikendra of the Department of Biotechnology, researchers from Manipur University. They published a paper: ‘The Nutritional Facts of Bamboo Shoots and Their Usage as Important Traditional Foods of Northeast India’.

According to the paper, 100 grams of freshly harvested shoots of Dendrocalamus strictus contains 3.07 grams of amino acids, 2.60 grams of protein, 6.17 grams of carbohydrates, 0.33 grams of fat, 2.26 grams of fibre, 2.43 mg of Vitamin C, 0.58 mg of Vitamin E, traces of calcium, phosphorus and 2.19 mg iron.

The Indian Food Composition Tables (IFCT- 2017), released by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN-Hyderabad) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has listed Konda Veduru as edible in the vegetable food category.

On the nutritional value and health benefits of Konda veduru, R. Ananthan, Scientist E, Food Chemistry and Nutrient Analysis Wing of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, told The Hindu: “Bamboo shoots are widely consumed as edible food across North East India. It has a lot of nutritional benefits.”

In the North East, the local communities cook bamboo shoots as vegetables and prepare pickles for preservation and consumption.

“The bamboo species in South India may be different from those of the North East, and nutritional values of every species are different from the other,” says Ananthan, one of the authors of the IFCT- 2017.

Over the decades, the local tribes, Koyas in particular, and tribes who migrated from neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh and settled in the Godavari Valley have also adopted bamboo shoots in the cuisine. The Konda Reddis, however, have better access to the Konda Veduru variety as they inhabit the hills slopes and Bison Hill Range of the Eastern Ghats.

Embraced novelty

The Kondhs, who migrated from Odisha in the 1970s and the Murias (Gutti Koyas), who migrated from Chhattisgarh in the early 2000s, slowly began to collect and consume bamboo shoots. This escalated the demand for bamboo shoots among the tribals of the Godavari region.

Venkatesh Jatvati, secretary of Jana Vikas Society NGO, says: “Post-COVID-19, however, the demand for bamboo shoots has increased manifold among non-tribals also as they learned about its nutritional and health benefits. During monsoon season, the Konda Reddis sell the bamboo shoots in the weekly shandies.”

But the non-tribals have yet to find an authentic delicacy prepared with bamboo shoots. They are now adding tender bamboo shoots to their regular vegetarian dishes.

Bamboo spreads over 82,000 hectares in the Chintoor Forest Division, with Konda Veduru as the prime species as claimed by the Forest Department.

“Being a non-tribe, we, too, consume the bamboo shoots. However, the taste of the Konda Reddi’s delicacies prepared with bamboo shoots is unique,” says Venkatesh.

Today, a bundle of four bamboo shoots costs ₹20 in the tribal shandies of the Godavari region and Chhattisgarh’s Kunta shandy, the biggest tribal shandy in Central India.

Commercial viability

In early February 2025, the Forest Department consented to collect and auction five-foot-long Konda Veduru sticks meant for curing, a post-harvesting stage in tobacco farming. Tobacco growers say the bamboo sticks will withstand heat above 100 degrees Celcius in this stage.

“In the first week of February, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Virginia Tobacco Farmers Association (VTFA, Godavari Region) to supply an estimated two lakh bamboo sticks. It is an attempt to prevent the illegal felling of bamboo trees and check the unregulated trade of Konda Veduru bamboo sticks,” says B.N.N. Murthy, Chief Conservator of Forest, Rajamahendravaram.

VTFA president Vivekananda Kakarla adds that the tobacco growers have struggled to procure the Konda Veduru variety sticks.

“We are collecting the bamboo sticks from our forest blocks with a condition that the VTFA should participate in the open auction as per the timber sale guidelines. If they won’t participate, they are liable to pay the compensation as per the February agreement”, Murthy explains.

Pallala Linga Reddy, newly elected vice-president, Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, (PESA), Egavalasa Panchayat (Maredumilli Agency) has said that the Konda Veduru stems are also in great demand from the banana farmers in the Godavari Delta.

The sticks are erected to support the banana plants to withstand the gales during the monsoon. “Even though it has a great market demand, our tribe is yet to explore the economic benefits of the Konda Veduru,” says Linga Reddy.

Meanwhile, Pallala Boddu Reddy of Aaku Maamidi Kota, seen repairing his abandoned bamboo basket-shaped tool for fishing in the stream, worries that the intricate bamboo craft passed on for generations in his tribe is becoming extinct.

“We admire the Konda Veduru for the many benefits it offers. But, few can craft a fishing basket like this with bamboo sticks. I wish even the bamboo craft gets its attention, now that people are talking about edible bamboo,” says the 55-year-old as he gently places the bamboo basket he made in the sun to dry.

(Edited by Anupama M.)