India's tribal people spin their way out of poverty, thanks to silkworms

Banka, India

POINTING to a television in her recently built mud-and-brick home, Indian villager Munia Murmu proudly shows off her new-found wealth, thanks to hundreds of squirming green silkworms.

Like thousands of other tribal villagers in India, Ms Murmu lived in extreme poverty, and until recently could not afford enough food for her and her family. But the 40-year-old decided to join others in her community rearing wild silkworms in the native forests of her home state of eastern Bihar.