Gunagi – The Forest Dwelling People of Karnataka, India

Population genetics is the branch of evolutionary biology responsible for investigating processes that cause changes in allele frequencies in populations based upon Mendelian inheritance. Biological Anthropologists consider unit of population as Mendelian population. The Gunagi is a small interesting migrated group living in Uttara Kannada district,Karnataka. The results of Gunagi are compared with the results of Daivajna Brahmin (Local population)to see whether Gunagi is a migrant population? Of the seventeen morphological measurements Gunagi and Daivajna Brahmin males and females show significant differences in more than ten morphological characters. The chi-square value is significant between the Gunagi and Daivajna Brahmin in ABO blood groups whereas; the chi-square value is insignificant in Rh blood groups. However, Gunagi and Daivajna Brahmin are serologically heterogeneous. Thus,the Gunagi anthropometrically forms a different population in Karnataka. The serological results also support to it. This is the first anthropometric and serological study on this community and very useful to the Ethnographers, Biological Anthropologists and Population genetist.