The Baigas formerly practised only shifting cultivation, burning down
patches of jungle and sowing seed on the ground fertilised by the
ashes after the breaking of the rains. Now that this method has been
prohibited in Government forest, attempts have been made to train them
to regular cultivation, but with indifferent success in Balaghat. An
idea of the difficulties to be encountered may be obtained from the
fact that in some villages the Baiga cultivators, if left unwatched,
would dig up the grain which they had themselves sown as seed in
their fields and eat it; while the plough-cattle which were given to
them invariably developed diseases in spite of all precautions, as a
result of which they found their way sooner or later to the Baiga's
cooking-pot. But they are gradually adopting settled habits, and in
Mandla, where a considerable block of forest was allotted to them
in which they might continue their destructive practice of shifting
sowings, it is reported that the majority have now become regular
cultivators. One explanation of their refusal to till the ground is
that they consider it a sin to lacerate the breast of their mother
earth with a ploughshare. They also say that God made the jungle to
produce everything necessary for the sustenance of men and made the
Baigas kings of the forest, giving them wisdom to discover the things
provided for them. To Gonds and others who had not this knowledge, the
inferior occupation of tilling the land was left. The men never become
farmservants, but during the cultivating season they work for hire at
uprooting the rice seedlings for transplantation; they do no other
agricultural labour for others. Women do the actual transplantation
of rice and work as harvesters. The men make bamboo mats and baskets,
which they sell in the village weekly markets. They also collect
and sell honey and other forest products, and are most expert at all
work that can be done with an axe, making excellent woodcutters. But
they show no aptitude in acquiring the use of any other implement,
and dislike steady continuous labour, preferring to do a few days'
work and then rest in their homes for a like period before beginning
again. Their skill and dexterity in the use of the axe in hunting
is extraordinary. Small deer, hares and peacocks are often knocked
over by throwing it at them, and panthers and other large animals
are occasionally killed with a single blow. If one of two Baigas
is carried off by a tiger, the survivor will almost always make a
determined and often successful attempt to rescue him with nothing
more formidable than an axe or a stick. They are expert trackers,
and are also clever at setting traps and snares, while, like Korkus,
they catch fish by damming streams in the hot weather and throwing into
the pool thus formed some leaf or root which stupefies them. Even in
a famine year, Mr. Low says, a Baiga can collect a large basketful of
roots in a single day; and if the bamboo seeds he is amply provided
for. Nowadays Baiga cultivators may occasionally be met with who have
taken to regular cultivation and become quite prosperous, owning a
number of cattle.