Paper short abstract

The tribal societies, any where in the world, which have been still in the hunting, gathering and slash-and-burn stages, have a much closer relationship with nature and its management.

Paper long abstract

India is a home for about 360 indigenous communities, speaking more than 100 languages / dialects and occupies the second position in the world in terms of population, after that of the african continent. The economy of these traditional communities has been primarily fishing-hunting-foraging and shifting cultivation. More than 90% of them depend on forests and other natural resources for their livelihood, even today, except for a few who adopted to plains agricultural practices. The proposed paper is aimed to understand how the traditional communities have been adopted / evolved / developed various conservative mechanisms / principles, and practiced them in order to protect their natural environments and livelihoods in a sustainable manner in Andhra Pradesh, India through an anthropological approach.