The Korkus formerly lived principally by hunting, and practised the
shifting cultivation in the forests which is now forbidden. Very few
of them are landowners, but some large zamindari estates in Hoshangabad
and Chhindwara are held by Korku proprietors, who are protected by the
prohibition of alienation. Though too improvident and lazy to be good
cultivators, they are in great request as farmservants and ploughmen,
being too honest to defraud their master of labour or material. A
remarkable change has thus taken place from their former character of
notorious robbers. They cultivate mainly in the hilly tracts and grow
light grains, though some have colonised the waste lands of the upper
Tapti valley in Nimar and raise good crops of wheat. They do not as
a rule keep cattle other than the few oxen required for cultivating
the soil and hauling out timber. Game of all kinds is caught by means
of heavy log traps for the larger varieties such as sambhar, bear
and spotted deer and even leopard; while hares, jungle-fowl and the
smaller sort of game are caught under heavy stones held up by nicely
adjusted strings. Occasionally, when in search of meat, a whole village
will sally out into the forest. The shikari has generally a matchlock
concealed in some hiding-place in the jungle, and once he is posted the
others beat towards him and any animal that turns up is shot at. In
the hot weather the water-hole and the bow and arrow play no small
part in helping to fill the Korku larder. Another method of catching
birds is to spread the pounded fruit of a certain parasitic airplant
on a rock. A thick shining gum exudes which so entangles the feet of
the smaller birds as to prevent their escape. Fish dams are built when
the water subsides after the rains, and a cylindrical basket six or
eight feet in length being adjusted at the outlet, the fish are driven
into this from above. During the hot season the fruit of the ghetu
is thrown into the pools, and this stupefies the fish and causes them
to float on the surface of the water, where they are easily caught.