THE PULSE

Leverage Small Capital, Grow Collective Livelihoods

By Sukhdas Mandavi

With a modest financial boost, community groups can cultivate diverse livelihoods, from farming to crafts, while preserving traditional practices and seeds.

Echoes of Sundargarh: Reclaiming Heritage

In Sundargarh, women advocate for the preservation of ancestral foods, traditional culture, and economic empowerment through self-sufficiency and community support.

Forest's Embrace, Village's Pulse

In remote mountain forests, a community navigates daily life, preserving ancient crops and adapting cultural traditions amidst evolving times.

Eat the Ancient Foods

By Bishnupriya Behera

Remembering the wisdom of ancestors, we used to nourish ourselves with traditional staples like pakhaḷa, kañji, drumstick leaves, and small fish.

Feed Our Children Our Own Foods

By Devisingh Solanki

Our community advocates for the integration of traditional, locally sourced foods into public programs to nourish children and preserve cultural heritage for future generations.

Cultivate with Your Own Seeds, Nurture Your Soil

By Laxmi Bagh, Farmer

By relying on traditional farming methods and saving our own seeds, we ensure food security and healthy crops without external inputs.

Start Small, Build Self-Reliance

By Jagannath Baraik

To achieve self-reliance and ensure employment for youth, focus on starting accessible small businesses like making candles and incense sticks.

The Unyielding Rhythm of Dindori

Despite challenges with basic services, the communities of Dindori thrive through self-reliance, preserving their rich culture, traditional crafts, and deep connection to nature.

Nourish from What Creation Provides

By Vijay Kanesh

By cherishing and utilizing the traditional foods and herbs found in our forests and lands, we can sustain ourselves and combat malnutrition while preserving our natural heritage.

Keep Your Community United

By Sunita Kumari

Drawing joy and strength from family, neighborhood, and shared traditions is essential for a thriving society.

Nurture Our Roots for a Developed Future

By Ram Maravi

By embracing organic farming, preserving traditional practices, and fostering local entrepreneurship, our community strives for self-reliance and a truly developed India.

Passing On Our Past Life

In Ghorawal, education is seen as the fundamental right to dignity, crucial for transmitting traditional forest and tribal knowledge, cultural programs, and ancestral connections to future generations.

Guardians of the Grain and Culture

In Ranchi, a tribal woman navigates the evolving landscape, balancing the deep-rooted traditions of zero-irrigation farming and cultural preservation with the promises of modern development initiatives.

Invest in Women's Teams, Grow Local Business

By SUSANTA PATTNAYAK

When provided with initial capital, local women's teams are ready to create products and establish their own businesses, strengthening the community economy.

Cultivate Your Land for Future Living

By Laxmi Bagh, Farmer

By integrating diverse farming practices with deep knowledge of local forest foods, we ensure our community's sustenance and future well-being.

Cultivate Many Ways to Thrive

By Jagannath Baraik, Farmer

To build resilience and ensure sustenance, our community embraces a variety of farming practices, from diverse crops to different livestock.

Depend on Nature's Bounty for Health and Sustenance

By PRADEEP KUMAR KANHAR

We are tribals who worship nature, depending on its plants for our health and sustenance, while maintaining traditional farming with zero irrigation.

Balangir Echoes: Seeds of Dreams and Future Pulse

A Balangir resident cultivates their land with ancient wisdom, dreams of opening a fancy store with a loan, reflects on their unique tribal identity and ancestral jungle, and envisions their village thriving with modern facilities by 2047.

Cultivate Many Small Ways to Earn a Living

By Sunita Kumari

I've learned that by exploring various small ventures and pursuing education, anyone can create their own path to a stable livelihood.

Empower Women's Groups with Seed Funds

By SUSANTA PATTNAYAK

With a modest twenty thousand rupees, our women's groups in Gajapati are transforming small support into vital handicraft and agricultural work for the community.

Unheard Voices, Unmet Needs

In rural Mandla, communities grapple with the everyday reality of distant governance and essential services that remain out of reach, despite repeated pleas.

Ancestral Seeds, Diverse Harvests

By Jagannath Baraik, Farmer

By cultivating a variety of crops, preserving ancestral seeds, and exploring animal husbandry, we build a resilient livelihood for our community.

Mandla's Roots: Whispers of the Forest and Fields

In Mandla, a tribal community deeply connected to nature navigates the challenges of modern progress while striving to preserve their ancestral heritage and unique way of life.

Nourish Future Generations with Forest Gifts and Ancestral Tongues

By Laxmi Bagh

We ensure our children's well-being and cultural continuity by teaching them about the forest's bounty and the richness of our ancestral language and traditions.

Keep Your Traditions Alive

By अमर जीत

In a rapidly changing world, holding onto cultural traditions is essential for identity, community strength, and collective happiness.

Preserve Your Traditional Ways

By bachcha lal, Farmer

In our jungle villages, we cherish and pass down traditional crops like Majeri, along with the knowledge of local herbs and cultural practices, for the benefit of future generations.

Fund Women's Groups, Employ Local Youth

By SUSANTA PATTNAYAK

By investing in local women's groups and providing employment for educated youth, our community can overcome unemployment and foster traditional livelihoods.

From Scarcity to Sustenance

An SHG woman, facing scarcity, finds hope and opportunity through community support and government assistance to build a thriving livelihood for her family.

With Small Capital, Cultivate Your Livelihood

By Ram Kumari

Families in Sonbhadra envision transforming a modest sum into thriving small businesses, securing their livelihoods and investing in their children's future.

Nourish Futures with Our Native Grains

By Rupesh Maravi

To preserve our health and culture, we advocate for the inclusion of native, nutritious grains in public food programs.

Pass on Our Traditions, Feed Our Future

By Ramadas Badanayak

The people of Udulibeda emphasize the vital role of traditional knowledge in cultivating local foods, stewarding the land, and ensuring their community's self-sufficiency for generations to come.

Plant a Forest, Regrow Your Medicine

By Padmini Bhoi

Faced with the loss of their natural forest, a community took action to plant a new one specifically for medicinal herbs.

Kandhamal's Earth Speaks: The Return of Ancient Grains

Farmers in Kandhamal, remembering their ancestors' wisdom, strive to revive traditional millets and organic farming practices, ensuring a sustainable future rooted in their heritage.

A Vision for India's Future: Young Voices from Kandhamal

Young people across Kandhamal share a collective aspiration for India to achieve developed nation status by 2047, often looking to models like China.

Cultivate with Old Methods, Even Without Irrigation

By Rupesh Maravi, Farmer

Even without irrigation, our traditional seeds and old farming methods ensure our crops ripen, providing food for our homes.

Cow Dung, Leaves, and Neem: The Recipe for Rich Soil

By Bisendra Naik, Farmer

By transforming natural materials like cow dung, dry leaves, and neem leaves into compost, I nourish the soil and grow healthy crops using ancestral wisdom.

The Foundation of a Developed Nation

Despite a national vision for development, many villages in Mandla still grapple with fundamental infrastructure deficiencies, from roads and bridges to clean water and reliable electricity.

Echoes of 2047: The Kandhamal Dream

Young people from across Kandhamal district express a unified and fervent desire for India to become a developed nation by 2047, aspiring to surpass even the economic growth of China.

Save the Seeds That Know the Rain

By Vijay kanesh, Farmer

By preserving our traditional, rain-fed seeds and planting them with care, we ensure food for our families and fodder for our animals.

Save Your Seeds, Grow a Second Crop

By Paradeshi Mirdha, Farmer

After the main harvest, we harness the land's natural moisture to cultivate a vital second crop, ensuring food and oil for our families.

Eat What Your Grandparents Ate

By Manu Digal

Our ancestors lived long and healthy lives by cultivating traditional crops without chemicals and consuming nourishing forest roots, a practice many now wish to revive.

Seed Small Ventures, Grow Family Futures

By Dhananjaya Harpal

When women's groups receive initial capital, they transform it into diverse ventures, securing livelihoods and nurturing their families' well-being.

Kandhamal's Harvest: Seeds of Hope

Villagers from Kandhamal voice their collective aspiration for government loans to cultivate thriving local businesses from the forest's bounty.

Grow Chickpeas, Corn, Lentils Without Water

By arun raja, Farmer

Our tribal community shares how to cultivate vital crops like chickpeas, corn, and lentils, even in dry conditions without relying on irrigation.

Save Your Own Seeds, Farm Traditionally

By Padmalochan Majhi, Farmer

By embracing traditional and organic farming methods and saving our own seeds, we ensure resilient harvests and preserve our heritage for future generations.

Raise a Calf, Secure Your Children's Future

By Parikshit Majhi

Families in Balangir are leveraging modest funds to invest in livestock like cows and goats, creating a sustainable source of income to support their households and educate their children.

From Home, We Grow Our Own

By bachcha lal

By investing a modest sum, villagers can establish and expand home-based enterprises, from crafting to livestock, fostering local economic growth and self-sufficiency.

Seeds, Sustenance, Sundargarh

A resilient village woman nurtures her family and community through traditional farming, future planning, and the strength of women's voices in Sundargarh.

Cultivate Many Streams of Income

By Pushpalata Surtange

Villagers are finding creative ways to start small businesses and leverage traditional farming to secure their livelihoods and support their communities.

Hopes Rooted in Community Support

Across Kandhamal, families facing deep poverty find a crucial lifeline in government assistance and community groups, striving to build better lives.

Worship What You Find in Your Life

By Devisingh Solanki

In our community, we find our deepest identity and pride in our traditional ways, from our mud houses to our reverence for all creation.

A Community's Call for Growth and Support

Residents of Maradipanga voice their daily struggles and collective aspirations for government assistance to cultivate better livelihoods, restore their environment, and build a more developed future.

Echoes of Sonbhadra: Threads of Time

In Sonbhadra, an elder reflects on the community's evolving traditions, from festive celebrations and unique tribal customs to environmental shifts and new livelihoods, holding onto the hope of preserving their rich heritage amidst change.

Preserve Your Seeds, Cultivate Diversity

By Sunita Kumari, Farmer

We carefully save seeds from our diverse crops like chickpeas, lentils, and mustard, ensuring we can grow them again next year and maintain our livelihood.

Cultivate Seeds, Stalls, and Songs for Self-Reliance

By Sunita Kumari

To build a self-reliant community, we must cultivate local skills, create economic opportunities, and preserve our traditional culture for the next generation.

Talk About Our Culture for Its Preservation

By Ram Maravi

In Dindori's tribal communities, people are actively preserving their unique lifestyle, diet, customs, and traditions by sharing their heritage and raising awareness.

Cultivate Your Own Livelihood with Small Grants

By Suruchi Pradhan

Even a small government grant can be the seed for a sustainable micro-enterprise, supporting family needs and children's education.

Homegrown Legacies of Ghorawal

In the wild community of Ghorawal, generations live united by homegrown sustenance and the shared responsibility of passing on their rich folk tales and language, ensuring their culture's pulse endures.

Live With the Forest, Preserve Your Ways

By bachcha lal

Drawing strength from ancient customs and the jungle's bounty, our community thrives by living independently and preserving traditional foodways for future generations.

Protect Seeds with Ash and Neem

By Ram Kumari, Farmer

Our ancestors taught us to protect our traditional crop seeds using natural methods, ensuring food for the next year.

Cultivate Crops That Ask for No Water

By Sunil oraon, Farmer

Facing the prospect of future water scarcity, our community relies on cultivating traditional zero-irrigation crops to secure food and conserve precious resources.

Hold Dhumkuriya Camps to Share Wisdom

By Sunil oraon

We pass on traditional and new tribal knowledge from elders to young people through organized camps, ensuring it endures for future generations.

The Seed Keepers: A Gajapati Harvest

A dedicated farmer, facing financial constraints and a lack of resources, seeks to revive traditional farming methods with vital support, aiming to secure his family's future and inspire his community.

Revive Our Food, Revive Our Culture

By Laxmi Bagh

By embracing our ancestral foods, language, and traditions, we can nourish our children and strengthen our community's identity and well-being.

Bring Traditional Millets to School Meals

By SUSANTA PATTNAYAK

By incorporating local, traditional grains like ragi and millet into school lunch programs, communities can significantly improve children's health and well-being.

Bring Back Our Ancestral Grains

By Sanjabati Pradhan, Woman farmer

Farmers in Kandhamal advocate for restoring traditional, organic millet cultivation to improve health and revitalize local food systems.

Leverage Loans for Local Forest Produce

By Runda Mallick, Trader

Community members in Kandhamal utilize government loans to trade in indigenous forest products, strengthening their local economy.

Preserve Our Culture, Our Herbs, Our Forests

By Chanda

We must actively safeguard our local traditions, medicinal plants, and vital forest trees to ensure our heritage and well-being endure.

Embrace Your Ancestral Paths for Joy and Connection

By Ulapi Sahu

For Ulapi Sahu, happiness and a strong sense of self are woven into the distinct traditions of her tribe, shared experiences, and the deep wisdom of elders.

Revere Both Grain and Money, Farm with Cow Dung

By Rupesh Maravi, Farmer

Our community remembers a time when farming with natural manure fostered both abundant harvests and deep respect for the land.

Plant a Small Seed, Grow a Family Livelihood

By Sabita Dalabehera, SHG Woman, Poultry Farmer

With a modest government loan or assistance, many women establish micro-enterprises like poultry farming and clothing shops to secure their family's future and improve their living standards.

Young Voices, Shared Vision for 2047

Across villages, young people and farmers alike share a resounding hope for India to achieve developed nation status by 2047, often looking to China as a model for progress.

Gajapati's Dawn: Seeds of Sustenance

Through government assistance, individuals from Gajapati's villages, including SHG women and farmers, find the means to overcome poverty and cultivate new livelihoods, from poultry farming to acquiring essential agricultural tools.

Melukote Kalyani

Melukote Kalyani experienced a month of pristine air, no fire threats, and patiently awaited the nourishing monsoon rains.

Vrishabhavathi River

Vrishabhavathi River faced fluctuating air quality and intermittent fire threats despite consistent rainfall and vibrant biodiversity this month.

Ooty Lake

Ooty Lake faced persistent deforestation and fluctuating air quality this month, despite periods of calm weather and rich biodiversity.

Yarinacocha Lake

Yarinacocha Lake faced persistent deforestation, intermittent nearby fires, and fluctuating moderate air quality throughout June.

Bhitarkanika National Park

Bhitarkanika experienced a month of high humidity and brewing thunderstorms, but fluctuating air quality posed a significant concern.

Save Your Seeds for the Next Season's Harvest

By Anjana Khadia, Farmer

By carefully collecting and preserving seeds from our first harvest, we ensure a second, nutritious crop and maintain our traditional farming methods for generations.

Twenty Thousand, A Small Shop

By Chanda, Shopkeeper

With a modest sum, community members in Sonbhadra build resilient livelihoods through small local businesses.

Pass on Our Past Life to the Next Generation

By Sunita Kumari

We ensure our community's wisdom, from indigenous seeds to folk tales, thrives by sharing it through family conversations.

The Unplanted Second Crop

Across Kandhamal, farmers yearn to cultivate more, especially a vital second crop, but are held back by a persistent lack of seeds and essential funds.

Small Seeds of Support Grow Big Livelihoods

By Jhini Kandha, SHG Woman

Across Gajapati, individuals transform modest government assistance into vital micro-enterprises, cultivating financial stability and leadership for their families.