“Irulas are very knowledgeable about medicinal plants”: Interview with Zai Whitaker, Director of the Irula Tribal Women’s Welfare Society – Tamil Nadu

The ITWWS is a women’s community-based development organization established in 1986. It was founded with the aim of protecting natural resources, empowering Irula women and using the Irula tribal knowledge of forest resources for economic prosperity. The organization started with five villages and now covers an area of over 100 villages in 4 districts. Because … Read more

India is home to three of the world “biodiversity hotspots”: The Hyderabad biodiversity pledge in perspective

Source: “Red marks in India’s green report card” by Tarsh Thekaekara, The Hindu, October 17, 2012 The Hindu : OpinionAddress : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/red-marks-in-indias-green-report-card/article4003291.eceDate Visited: 3 January 2022

Strengthening the livelihood of tribal households in remote and hilly terrains: The “Wadi” project – Rajasthan

MOHAMMED IQBAL, The Hindu, JAIPUR, February 4, 2012 An ambitious project sponsored by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 15 villages of the tribal-dominated Anandpuri block in Banswara district of Rajasthan has strengthened the rural livelihood scenario by successfully connecting missing links of resource management in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, pasture, medicinal products … Read more

Tip | Search articles on tribal history, politics and literature on Ramachandra Guha’s website

We met adivasis who had been persecuted by the Naxalites, and other adivasis who had been tormented by the Salwa Judum vigilantes [i.e. “a strange, not to say bizarre, example of bipartisan co-operation“]. The situation of the community was poignantly captured by one tribal, who said […] “placed between the Maoists and the vigilantes, we … Read more

Time for an apology to the world’s Indigenous peoples: Residential schools, exploitation of natural resources and ill treatment in the name of “progress”

One of many broken agreements was that children were to be educated “whenever the Indians of the reserve shall desire it” in schools on the reserves. But rather than instruction being optional for those bands who desired it, as agreed, the state abducted Indigenous children and forcibly confined them in residential schools far from their … Read more