dwellers do not have any pecuniary interest in protecting the forest which in many cases let them condone the criminal elements absorbed in felling forests for the town-based timber merchants. Their love for the forests is reflected in the fact that all their major festivals like 'Maghe', 'Baa' or 'Jomnoma' are centred around the relationship between the tribals and the environment. There is a clear appreciation of the natural resource cycle in all their festivals, and the veneration of nature is in a way a prayer for its stable maintenance.
In the current riots which started on October 8 our investigations show that some five persons were killed, three of them Hindus and two Muslims. All the killings took place on one day, i e, October 10.
