Police Act, have been established at Rajahmundry and Cocanada. The latter also tries cases of assault and voluntarily causing hurt under the Penal Code.
All the tahsildars and deputy tahsildars in the district have second-class magisterial powers, but in Amalápuram, Cocanada, Peddápuram, Rajahmundry and Rámachandrapuram there are stationary sub-magistrates, and the tahsildars of these taluks hear few cases. At Bhadráchalam, also, there is a second-class magistrate in addition to the tahsildar. Deputy tahsildars with second-class magisterial powers are stationed at Kottapéta in Amalápuram taluk, Coringa in Cocanada taluk, Prattipádu in Peddápuram taluk and Álamúr in Rámachandrapuram and independent deputy tahsildars with similar authority at Pithápuram and Tuni. As elsewhere, appeals from the second-class magistrates, and practically the whole of the first-class cases arising in the district, are decided by the Divisional Officers, who are severally stationed at Cocanada, Peddápuram, Rajahmundry, Pólavaram, and Bhadráchalam. The District Magistrate and the Sessions Judge have the usual jurisdiction, except that, as already mentioned, the latter has no powers in the Agency, his place in that area being taken by the District Magistrate.
Gódávari occupies a rather unenviable position among the Madras districts in respect of the total amount of registered crime which occurs within it, but a very large proportion of the offences committed are common thefts, and another considerable percentage are simple house-breakings. In crime of the graver kinds — robberies, dacoities and murders — its position is not exceptional, and indeed dacoities are rare outside Pólavaram.
The nearest approach to a criminal tribe is afforded by the Yánádis or Nakkalas. These people are called indifferently by either of these two names, though they themselves resent the appellation Nakkala. This word seems to be derived from nakka, a jackal, since the tribe is expert in catching these animals and eats them. The Nakkalas are generally of slight physique, dark of complexion and very dirty in their habits. At Pithápuram there are some of them who are more strongly built and perhaps spring from a different strain. On the register of criminal gangs kept by the police there are at the present time 114 men, 121 women and 236 children belonging to this caste. The most troublesome sections of them are those in the Rámachandrapuram and Peddápuram taluks.
The Nakkalas are by nature wanderers and dwellers in fields and scrub jungle, who make a scanty living by catching jackals, hares, rats and tortoises, by gathering honey, and by
