[6][7][8] In the case of the Katkari this vulnerability derives from their history as a nomadic, forest-dwelling people listed by the British Raj under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871,[9] a stigma that continues to this day.

Weling (1934, 2), drawing on census data from 1901, notes that the Katkari were ‘thickly scattered’ in small communities throughout the hill ranges and forests of Raigad and Thane districts in the present day state of Maharashtra.

[9] Some also lived in hill areas in the southern part of the current state of Gujarat, and in the forests of what are now Nashik, Pune and Dhule districts.

Patterns of population change among the Katkari, reflected in birth and mortality rates, seem to coincide with the problems of the so-called 'vanishing' tribes in India.

The Katkari struggle to remain in their hamlets provides an important contrast to the land tenure problems facing urban slum dwellers[19][20] or Adivasis in remote areas displaced by large-scale development projects.

[21][22] Unlike Adivasis impacted by mega-projects, unpredictable forces at the micro level are driving the Katkari from their homes – haphazardly and one hamlet at a time.

And unlike the situation in many urban slums, the Katkari did not squat in public and private spaces illegally, but rather settled where they had been invited to do so by landholders and other employers in need of labourers who could be easily bonded.

Katkari living close to forested areas still consume over 60 different uncultivated plants and over 75 different animals and birds, gathering these with incredible ingenuity and skill.