“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
Indian films with the jungle as backdrop were inspired by Hollywood. Films like the adventures of Tarzan, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, were very popular. ‘Jungle movies’ in India started with the silent movie ‘ King of Forest’ (1926), produced by Royal Arts, with Jilloobai and Udwadia in lead roles. The Tamil film … Read more
India has about 5,000 rock art sites, next only to Australia and South Africa, where prehistoric people have recorded life as they saw it, in paintings, engravings and carvings. Finding and decoding this artistic “perception of reality” is a challenge for rock art hunters. | To view the slideshow and read the full article, click here >> Rock art can … Read more
Gandhi believed that giving more importance, value and relevance to practical skills, and applying traditional knowledge to solving day-to-day problems were essential for the development of rural India. – Bunker Roy, the founder of Barefoot College, which helps rural communities becomes self-sufficient
Guest blogger Mari Marcel Thekaekara is a human rights activist and writer based in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu. She co-founded ACCORD (Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development) in 1985 to work with Adivasi people of Chembakolli, Tamil Nadu, southern India. “I was with the ACCORD team in 1988 when the Adivasi people from Chembakolli decided they … Read more
People belonging to the kani tribe of the forests and hills of Kanyakumari district have wild mushrooms in their diet. They collect half-a-dozen species of mushrooms from the deep forests of the Western Ghats which has a rich repository of bio-diversity. Since the district receives rainfall from both the southwest and northeast monsoons, it aids … Read more