Hyderabad, Dec. 12: For seven years, Suguna toiled to please her husband. Then one morning, she was packed off to another man?s house.

The 27-year-old had a new husband.

The proverbial seven-year itch? No, just a way of life.

Wife shopping is an accepted practice among the 5,000-strong Pinchapuri sub-sect of the primitive Yerukula tribals who are spread over five towns in Andhra Pradesh?s Kadapa district, about 375 km south-west of the capital Hyderabad.

?I sold her for Rs 18,000 and plan to buy two more wives,? said Subbaiah, Suguna?s former husband. She was not ?good looking?, he explained after a pause.

The 38-year-old has already made a deal with a marriage broker in a neighbouring town for buying two wives for Rs 58,000.

The community, with a mismatch of 400 eligible women against a bachelor stock of some 3,700, has been continuing the practice.

?We are not publicising it,? Sundaraiah, a community leader, shot back when asked about any run-ins with the authorities. ?They do not interfere. They only advise us not to do it,? the 57-year-old added.

Like other men of his tribe, Sundaraiah too has had a crowded conjugal life. He now lives with his 45-year-old fourth wife.

?We have permitted wife shopping. Wives cannot object to her man buying another woman, but she has the right to remarry or remain without marriage,? the tribal leader in Mydukuru town said.

District police and health officials said they were helpless. ?We have tried to stop the practice, but it goes on as both a social custom and also economic necessity,? an official said.

After the woman is sold, the children stay with the father. ?Mothers normally ignore the children sired by past husbands,? said Sujata, who was sold to a 36-year-old recently.

Sundaraiah said the community has been dwindling over the past 10 years because youths have either vanished or been killed. During the previous Telugu Desam Party regime, nearly 300 tribals were killed in encounters following a crackdown on the village mafia in the Rayalaseema region.

Although the Pinchapuris have land and houses given by the government, they prefer working as private soldiers of village dons.

?Or they live on the earnings of their women who either make cheap jewellery, artefacts or go into prostitution,? said a senior police official in Mydukuru.