Protecting sacred-groves: community-led environmental organizing by santhals of eastern India
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-01-01
- URL:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2019.1585895
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois
- Subject Term:
- conservation, environment, environmental communication, natural resource management, community participation, indigenous population, India (Southern Asia), protective actions, mobilization, community initiative
- Notes:
- 17 pages., via online journal., In the face of widespread degradation of natural resources (including deforestation), and socio-economic disparities, underserved populations from rural and indigenous spaces of the global south face challenges to conserve environmental resources. Many of these spaces, such as sacred-groves, are important to indigenous people and are deeply intertwined with their identity, worldviews and existence. This research, embracing principles of critical/cultural environmental communication, examines how indigenous people of eastern India mobilized collectively to protect their sacred environmental resources, thus improving community members’ well-being. Paying attention to engaged environmental action; critical listening and dialoguing; and local-centric participation, this research argues that contextually meaningful and community-led environmental initiatives help motivate and raise consciousness among future generations as well as among wider indigenous (and marginalized) populations.
