ABSTRACT
This essay provides a moving analysis of the challenges faced by the adivasi or “tribal” peoples of the Chattisgarh region in middle India. The author began the study with the intention of exploring how villagers responded to climate change and its impact. But her questions changed as she realized that the villagers were focused completely and understandably, on the loss of their land and livelihood. Historically, the Adivasis had already been threatened by the government owned coal mines; now, they faced a new challenge with the arrival of private mining companies. The Adivasis on her site were not necessarily anti-development, and had even welcomed an earlier mine on the assumption that it would not affect the residential part of the village and provide infrastructure (such as schools and hospitals) and employment for them. But their hopes had been dashed as villages in the region suffered ecological devastation, and are now littered with the “dystopian paraphernalia” of mining. The notes that while climate change may eventually affect everyone on the planet, the Advasi villagers on her field site face the immediate consequences of “progress”: loss of land and livelihood, destruction of communities and, in extremis, destitution and starvation, long before they face climate change.
