Digging stick

The Kutia Khond ethnic group living in the hilly forest land of the state of Orissa belongs to the Indian population group known as "Adivasi", which literally means "the original inhabitants" or "the first in the land". In order to prevent any claims to ownership of the land they inhabit, they are now referred to as a "scheduled tribe". For Mahatma Gandhi, they were the "Children of the Forest God" or "Forest People" for short. The Khond's proximity to the forest has recently brought them worldwide fame, as the Dongria Kondh, one of the many entities subsumed under Kondh, were the real-life role model for James Cameron's Avatar, the tribe that fights to protect its ancestral habitat against outside interests.

Traditionally, the Kutia Ghong practice slash-and-burn agriculture on cleared clearings in the jungle. In addition to farming, hunting and gathering supplement their diet. Women usually use digging sticks to dig up wild tubers in the forest.