Toto Community of North Bengal Under Extinction Threat

Abstract

It’s likely you have not heard of Totos, the most primitive Indo-Bhutanese tribal community in India. Soon you may not get to hear about them at all. The tribe, scattered in the Totopara region, is fast showing signs of complete extinction. Most unmarried Totos have thalassaemia, which is pushing the endangered tribe towards total extinction as because blood tests among unmarried Totos and found over 15% of them were carriers of the thalassaemia. Thalassaemia is a blood related incurable disease in which all the confined descended population will be affected though generation and will be extinct in due course of time. The Toto is a primitive and ‘isolated tribal group’ residing only in a small enclave called Totopara in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India. Totopara is located at the foot of the Himalayas just to the south of the borderline between Bhutan and West Bengal (on the western bank of river Torsha).