The Chhattisgarh Tribes’ Change in Methods of Subsistence: Beneficial or Harmful to the Ecosystem?

One of the tribal states, Chhattisgarh, is renowned for its customs and culture. But even though they were passed down, these two items do little to support the current generation. They worship the forest because it provides them with all of their basic needs, including food, firewood, clothing, medicines, and housing. They are not dependent on the outside world for their food. But because industry and urbanisation are destroying the forests, which are the source of all the vital elements, including oxygen, the introduction of the monetary economy has negatively impacted their way of life and subsequently the ecology. The forest not only gives indigenous people a means of subsistence but also links them to the ecology and slows global warming. In addition, they are masters of art and skill. The Bastar region is particularly well-known for its art, or Bastar Art, which includes the use of bamboo to create furniture like sofas and other items. In reality, thatch is used to construct homes. Additionally, it covers woodwork, metalwork, and soil art. The goods are valuable on both a national and international scale. All of these skills, however, are useless if they cannot offer the current generations viable means of subsistence. Although the government is making some progress in this area, it is not nearly enough.

Although, scope in agriculture is rising, but tribal’s principal traditional occupation also need to be discovered. They must cherish and improve just their fundamental traditional talents. Ecosystem destruction and the loss of tribal livelihoods are therefore prevented.

Furthermore, the tribal peoples have innate rights to their forested regions, but the government is encroaching on all of them. In their own wooded land, the tribes are beginning to seem foreign. Making them forest stakeholders is necessary. It should be mentioned that the local community’s lack of customary rights contributes to the degradation of the forest and ultimately the ecology.

The only cause of the alarming rate at which global warming is accelerating is that humans are dispersing farther from the ecology, or, alternatively, that conventional means of subsistence are diminishing. If the tribal people are able to sustain and maintain these means of subsistence, it is necessary to not interfere with those means, to raise their financial revenue from them, and, in the end, to encourage others to learn and use their methods.

Dr. Aakriti Dewangan

Assistant Professor

Department of Social Work

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

aakriti.dewangan@kalingauniversity.ac.in

7898152590