Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective

Source: “Perceiving the Forest: Early India Studies” in History (February 2001 17: 1-16)URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300101700101 | Backup (PDF, 1MB) >>Date Visited: 6 November 2021 The Aryans describe their enemies as dark in complexion, noseless or flat-nosed, of harsh speech, not honouring the Aryan gods, not observing the Aryan religious ritual, but rich in material possessions and … Read more

Heralding social and economic actions: Hunting and food gathering in Durwa culture – Bastar

Within the world of food collection […] Hunts such as these, all of them taking place in the months preceding the monsoon and involving only men, made me first realize that ‘hunting’ is not synonymous with ‘meat’ or ‘food’, and that there were other connotations attached to the activity. They inevitably involved rituals and, often, first fruit … Read more

Learn more about tribal communities in the “Seven Sister States”: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Tripura

The “participatory guarantee system” (PGS Organic Council): A renewed effort to sustain the lives and cultures of indigenous communities – Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

Rich Forests: Making a living under the canopy […] PGS has been received enthusiastically in India and elsewhere. The PGS Organic Council was registered in Goa, India, in April 2011. Since then, the Government of India – under the national project on organic farming – has officially launched the participatory guarantee system (PGS India) for organic produce. In India … Read more

Landless Kol tribe forest dwellers: Permission required to plant or use trees such as neem, amla and mahua – Uttar Pradesh

Though the Kols are anthropologically tribal, they are recognized as a Scheduled Caste in Uttar Pradesh. Not only has this deprived them of their traditional source of living-the forest, it has largely left them dependant and landless, languishing in silica quarries and sand mines. The Kols mainly inhabit the backward Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand regions bordering … Read more