Abstract:

This paper provides a case study in which Indigenous knowledge and traditional stories relating to cloud formation, lightning, wind direction, rains, drought, disaster prediction, response, mitigation, and effects of weather on crops are applied in a contemporary context by the tribal peoples of Rajasthan, India. The state of Rajasthan falls in an area of high climate sensitivity, maximum vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. The study documents how individuals in these tribal communities (including Bhil, Meena, Banjara, Kathodi, Rabaris, Sansi and Kanjar) perceive and manage natural disasters and extreme weather events, including their strategies for early detection of coming events and for coping with these events, as well as their perceptions of their short and long term impacts on biodiversity.