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Hello friends, I am Muriel, your eco-storywriter from India. Eco-storywriter???????? |
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Is that a new profession? And how does one become an eco-storywriter?
So many questions! OK, let me reply to each of them one by one.
What is an eco-storywriter? Someone who writes about the natural world and how to care for it. Simple as that. Bet you knew. Anyway, I find environmental stories are a cool way to introduce kids to ecology and encourage them to become stewards of India's environment.
So many questions! OK, let me reply to each of them one by one.
What is an eco-storywriter? Someone who writes about the natural world and how to care for it. Simple as that. Bet you knew. Anyway, I find environmental stories are a cool way to introduce kids to ecology and encourage them to become stewards of India's environment.
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Indians have been world's first and foremost environmentalists. Long before the Green movement in the West, India's religion and culture emphasized environmental protection and harmonious living with nature. According to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, every life form is sacred. That explains why despite all pressures, India has been able to preserve a lot of its incredible biodiversity and amazing ecological traditions.
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India's ecological traditions. That is what fascinates me most! My first introduction to India's ecological traditions happened when almost two decades back I visited Warli villages in North Maharashtra with the team of Maharashtra Prabodhan Seva Mandal (Centre of Holistic Studies) founded by the late Winin Pereira, eminent Indian ecologist.
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The NGO's foremost goal was to visit villages and record the vanishing traditional knowledge of the Warli people. With the help of a botanist, they took note of all the medicinal herbs used by the Adivasis. They also documented the amazing knowledge Warlis have in the fields of agriculture, forest management… For example I learnt that Warli people cultivate some 15 traditional varieties of paddy, each adapted to several different ecological conditions. Some varieties are planted when the monsoon proceeds nicely, some are for years of drought, some are for the degraded lands and some can be harvested within 45 days… Note that such varieties might prove essential if monsoons become erratic due to global warming!!
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But the most important thing I learnt was that India was in fact world's largest repository of indigenous knowledge systems. For 2 years I was lucky to travel around the country and in every state I discovered traditions of water harvesting, vernacular architecture, sacred groves, tree worship, traditional agriculture and crops, local cuisines, handlooms, harvest festivals…
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The tragedy is that due to industrialization and globalization, indigenous knowledge systems are today under threat of extinction. Just like tigers and river dolphins are endangered, traditional knowledge that has been developed over thousands of years of man living in harmony with nature, is on the verge of getting lost for ever. Undeniably tragic! Why? Because indigenous knowledge is the answer to many environmental problems the world is facing today.
To quote E.G. Vallianatos: "The peasants of the Third World have some clues to what may spark an ecological renaissance in the farms of America. The peasant carries the seeds of centuries of wisdom, every truth having been learned from living in balance with nature. The peasant talks about eons of wisdom tested in nature."
To quote E.G. Vallianatos: "The peasants of the Third World have some clues to what may spark an ecological renaissance in the farms of America. The peasant carries the seeds of centuries of wisdom, every truth having been learned from living in balance with nature. The peasant talks about eons of wisdom tested in nature."
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That is why we've got to preserve indigenous people's skills and expertise in the fields of agriculture, architecture, health care systems, textiles … They are gifts inherited from our 8000 years old Indian civilization.
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What better way to introduce India's ecological traditions than through the power of an ecological tale!! Muriel Kakani Your eco-storywriter |
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Muriel Kakani is an author and illustrator who shares her ecological tales to create awareness about India’s fascinating biodiversity, ecological traditions, traditional knowledge systems, and environmental issues.
Muriel is a Belgian national living in India for last 20 years. She has travelled to almost every corner of India. Muriel presently works on a series of children's books for Barefoot College in Tilonia Rajasthan.
