Elephant

“The Kattunayakans, for example, a traditional hunter-gatherer tribe, would never plant a cash crop like bananas, since ‘elephants would eat it, of course’. They think it’s perfectly natural for elephants to come through their land and eat whatever they find. But for many of the newer immigrants into the region this is completely unacceptable, and they think elephants are a huge problem. Such nuances are frequently lost on biologists, conservationists and the media.” – Tarsh Thekaekara (Director, Shola Trust) in “Can elephants and humans live together?” (The Guardian, 6 March 2017)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/can-elephants-and-humans-live-together
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22634

New light on hunter-gatherers in Narmada Valley, Indus Valley Civilisation and modern India’s cultural and linguistic diversity: Anthropological Museum Kolkata – West Bengal

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A new museum in Kolkata tells the tale of how modern humans in the Indian subcontinent evolved from ancestors who arrived about 12.3 million years ago from Africa, during the Pleistocene era. Set up by the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), the museum traces the history of human evolution in this part of the world through … Read more

Elephants and people have always been here, and will continue to be here: Cycling for Elephants (Nilgiri) – Tamil Nadu

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We are working with the Make a Difference (MaD) initiative to organise a cycling fund-raiser for our work around ‘elephants in the matrix’. The ‘conflict vs coexistence’ (and larger sharing vs sparing) debate is of course vibrant, but most our work is in human dominated/matrix habitats in the Nilgiris. Elephants and people have always been here, and will continue to … Read more

Video | Trailer to “Have you seen the arana?” – Kerala

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“The stories of ancestors and their discoveries give the film a mystical quality and work like a poetic refrain” – Review by Bikas Mishra Three narratives from distinct landscapes – rice fields, forest and plantations – reveal different ways of engaging with land.  Award winning documentary by Sunanda Bhat (Bangalore) More about this film In 2013 the documentary was presented … Read more

eBook | What is the Biodiversity Act? And how will it protect intellectual property rights over traditional knowledge?

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An Act to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing This publication contains the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Biological Diversity Rules, 2004 that was promulgated by the Government of India. This document may therefore be reproduced for educational and non-profit purposes without special permission … Read more

eJournal | Human Elephant (no) Conflict: Tribal communities in the Nilgiri mountains – Tamil Nadu

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In Gudalur, a plantation landscape in South India, about 150 elephants share space with a quarter of a million people. Using a quantified survey coupled with ethnographic fieldwork, we aim to better understand human diversity and tolerance of elephants that allows for coexistence. We find a marked difference between communities, with ethnicity being a better predictor of tolerance than … Read more