Paper short abstract:

This paper explores evolving local knowledge in Ziro Valley, highlighting how interventions reshape Apatani climate worlds and cosmologies which challenge dominant mono-epistemic views of climate change and resilience

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the evolving realities in Ziro Valley, challenging the dominant representation of the Apatanis as custodians of traditional agriculture and natural resource management. Engaging critically with climate change discourse that valorizes indigenous adaptive capabilities and resilience, the study explores how local knowledge is reshaped through state-led and technical interventions. Neocolonial and neoliberal projects, such as infrastructural expansion and tourism, embed environmental issues into a socio-technical assemblage that redefines the Apatanis’ climate worlds/cosmology. Simultaneously, cosmological practices of the ageing population reveal alternative understandings of ecological transformations, such as perceiving mountains as ‘earth-beings.’

By juxtaposing these facets, the paper argues for a nuanced understanding of how local communities enact and make sense of their ontological realities. Recognizing local knowledge as dynamic and evolving challenges the mono-epistemic view of climate change as a singular, scientifically defined global crisis. Instead, it foregrounds the multiplicity of ontologies that characterize and experience climate change. This study thus opens a dialogue to register diverse enactments of climate realities, emphasizing the interplay between geography, social position, and the evolving knowledge systems of local communities.