Protecting Sacred-groves: Community-led Environmental Organizing by Santhals of Eastern India

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.