Shivaratri celebrations by the Kota community in the Nilgiri mountains – Tamil Nadu

Videos taken during Shivaratri, the main annual festival celebtrated by the Kota community More videos and background information provided by Venkatesh Lakshmanan >> For an in-depth study of Kota culture and music, refer to Richard K. Wolf’s award-winning study, The Black Cow’s Footprint: Time, Space, and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South India >>

Video | Living with the cycles of nature and understanding that it is bountiful: National award winning documentary “I Cannot Give You My Forest” – Odisha

I cannot give you my forest is a documentary directed and produced by filmmakers- Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. It has received the National Film Award for Best Environment Film in 2014. Filmed in the forests of Odisha, ‘I cannot give you my forest’ is a window into the lives of the Kondh ‘adivasis’. The … Read more

Justice, social, economic and political equality for all citizens: Ramachandra Guha on safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas enshrined in the Indian Constitution

This essay was first published in the Economic and Political Weekly (August 11, 2007) under the title, “Adivasis, Naxalites, And Indian Democracy” and is republished here with the author’s permission as it – unfortunately – remains as relevant today. […] On 13th December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly of … Read more

eJournal | Involving tribal communities in conservation: Sustainable resource use and forest conservation by the Kaani community of Kanyakumari – Tamil Nadu

3. Sustainable resource use and forest conservation by the Kaani indigenous community of Kanyakumari forests in the Western Ghats, India (Ch. 3, pp. 37-55) in: “Knowing our Lands and Resources: Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices related to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Asia” by Madhav Karki, Rosemary Hill, Dayuan Xue, William Alangui, Kaoru Ichikawa … Read more

Forests beyond our reach: tribal healer (Wayanad) – Kerala

Tribesmen’s freedom to enter the forest to collect herbal plants and other medicinal material should be protected by the law, Achappan Vaidyar, tribal healer from Wayanad, has said. Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a national-level tribal healers’ workshop and an exhibition of tribal medicines on the campus of the Kerala Institute for Research, Training … Read more