Sacred groves: Traditional practice and modern ecology

Sacred groves are maintained by many tribal communities across India like the Santals and tribal communities in the Nilgiri mountain range of Tamil Nadu, adjoining Wayanad District, and the Kaani community Kanyakumari region on both sides of the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Some of their ancestral forests, sacred streams and mountains are now … Read more

Video & slideshow | Wall Art of the Santals: Glimpses from Purulia (Daricha Foundation) – West Bengal

Watch a video by Daricha Foundation and recommend on YouTube >> View a slideshow by Daricha Foundation >> Courtesy: Ratnaboli Bose (email 13 February 2018) © 2018 Daricha Foundation: www.daricha.org

Integration or isolation? A “Down To Earth” discussion on the fate of the Jarawa tribe – Andaman

Contact with the outside world has exposed the Jarawas to various dangers. Is isolation the best way to conserve? A debate Numbering around 400, people of the Jarawa tribe occupy the lion’s share of land in South and Middle Andaman Islands, earmarked as Jarawa Tribal Reserve (JTR). This irks leaders of political parties and businesspeople, … Read more

Did the Indus Valley Civilisation script remain “elusive because no one has attempted to study the script using Gondi symbols and language”? – Karnataka

New findings raise an old question: Do South Indians belong to the Indus Valley Civilisation? Around two kilometres away from the famous Vittala Temple in Hampi, Karnataka, [a]round 10 years ago, KM Metry, a Kannada University professor of Tribal Studies who was researching instances of human-bear conflict in the area and visiting sites in search … Read more

Evidence suggesting a Gondi-Harappan link (Indus Valley civilisation, 2500 B.C.–1750 BC): Pictographs deciphered with the help of a proto Dravidian tribal language – Karnataka

The sentence emerged after a set of 19 pictographs from a cave in Hampi were deciphered using root morphemes of Gondi language, considered by many eminent linguists as a proto Dravidian language. Eleven of the Hampi pictographs resemble those of the civilisation, according to Dr. K.M. Metry, Head and Dean, Social Sciences, Kannada University, Hampi; … Read more