✦ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS✦

 Eco-consciousness in Tribal Lifestyle


Detail from Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

The more we, humans, grew apart from nature, the more harm we bring upon on nature and ourselves. We are now in such a state that the indigenous tribal communities are probably the only people who cohabit with nature in the truest sense of the word. Many tribes cohabit with nature and sustain and nurture each-other. In this page we will look at some tribal practices that protect and sustains nature and natural habitats.

1.      Worshipping Nature

In Many ancient religions nature is worshipped as divine. Forests, trees, mountains, natural lakes, even some animals are believed to possess a spiritual soul and are often worshipped and protected as holy and auspicious. Sacred groves are small areas of forest or water bodies filled with biodiversity, and are traditionally dedicated to deities worshipped by tribal communities. The tribal communities of Odissa, India are protecting these forests that are integral to their lives and are saving the bio-diversity rich area from the wrath of mining. The mineral-rich Niyamgiri is considered Sacred by Odissa’s Paraja tribe. The Tachi Yokut Tribe is celebrating the return of water in California's Tulare Lake, they understand that the lake is essential to rejuvenate the harmed ecosystem. The Santhal tribes of India protect several hills that they worship as their deity Marang Buru.

 

2.      Sustainable agriculture

The tribes live off nature but they do not exploit or exhaust it. Tribes all over the world have the innate knowledge that Nature is our sustenance and it needs to be cherished so that it can nurture our future generations. The most primitive occupation of many tribes were travellig cultivation. The system is still intact in many cases; this cultivation method does not exhaust a piece of land of nutrients and gives the land time to revitalize itself. Mixed farming is another method followed by the tribes that incorporate birds and farm animals into the agriculture, and they live off the field residues and fertile the land with their wastes.

 

3.      Foraging

A very common tribal practice is foraging fruits, flowers, greens, dry leaves and twigs from the forests. If speculated closely, we can see that hardly any tribal practice includes cutting down trees or deforestation. Foraging is one of the most sustainable ways that our environment can be protected.

 

4.      Eco-friendly lifestyle

Indigenous people living in close proximity to nature are innately extremely environmentally conscious and practice an eco-friendly lifestyle. They consider themselves to be a part of nature itself and produce negligible amount carbon footprint. Their lives are intertwined with the habitat that they dwell in.





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