Tribal socio-economic life and forests are co- related terms without which tribal living cannot be imagined. Tribal economy is mostly hand to mouth economy. It is mainly confined to essentials viz. : food, shelter, cloth and herbs. Its social and cultural structure and level has been framed considering forest as base. With changing times and modern development tribals settlements are threatened and the role of jungles in supplying essentials is diminishing. Endeavour should be made that the jungle-based economy of the tribals are not made zero in near future.

This book studies the two major aspects i.e., of tribal settlement in reserve forest areas and minor forest produce.

Dr. Devendra Thakur (b. 1939), D.Litt., was formerly Professor in L.N. Mishra College of Business Management, P.G. Deptt., B.B.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur. He was Ex-Member, Bihar College Service Commission. He has taught Economics, Co-operation and Extension in the Rural Institute of Higher Studies, Birauli for more than a decade. He completed his Ph.D. in 1970 and D.Litt. in 1989. He was awarded post-Doctoral fellowship by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to study problems relating to Tribals.

He visited Naples, Italy, on Italian Government. Scholarship to study plan implementation course. A number of articles written by him on Socio- Economic and Political problems have been published in reputed journals of and also dozens of talks have been broadcast by him from A.I.R., Patna. He is also author of a number of outstanding books.

Dr. D.N. Thakur is M.A. in Hindi, English, Prakrit and Jainology and Ph.D. on the subject "Trends of Traditions of Indian Semantics". He has been a dedicated teacher and always endeavoured to explore new areas of study in different fields of knowledge including socio-economic development of Indian Tribes. Moreover, Dr. Thakur has assisted a lot of South-East Asian research scholars in fulfilment of their works on different subjects. He is still devoted to serve humanity through his writings.

Tribal socio-economic life and forest are co-related terms. It has extreme co-relation without which tribal living cannot be imagined. Importance of forest in tribal life is described on the basis of following aspects:

(1) Economy,

(2) Social aspect, and

(3) Cultural aspect and their ethnic condition.

Tribal economy is mostly hand to mouth economy. It is mainly confined to essentials, viz., food, shelter, cloth and herbs. These essentials differ from five essentials of the main stream. Out of the four essentials, three essentials are supplied by the jungle and for fourth they have to rely on market. With the changing time, the role of jungle in supplying essentials is diminishing. But pace of diminishing trend is slow. It is studied that jungle-based economy of the tribe will not be made zero in near future.

What may be the reason as per folk songs and stories, tribal life at present has framed its social structure and level considering forest as base. The expressions relating to music, dance and way of living as per food habit, social relation, dwelling conditions, all have their base in forest.

As their living is confined to a separate compartment away from the mainstream, the tribal lifestyle is flowing like a hilly stream far away from the main river full of human aspiration and touch having a totally egalitarian society where men and women are playing equal role to conclude their lifestyle. Here, a unique ethnic culture has been developed.

**Contents and Sample Pages**