Forests, Tribes, and Colonialism: Environmental Governance and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in Odisha

This article examines the intersection of colonial forest governance and tribal ecological knowledge in Odisha, home to Indigenous communities such as the Kandha, Juang, Saora, and Dongria Kondh. Under British rule, forest management was redefined through a centralized bureaucracy that disrupted local systems of ecological stewardship. Employing a historical-ethnographic lens, the study analyzes how colonial policies—particularly the Indian Forest Acts of 1865, 1878, and 1927—criminalized practices like shifting cultivation (podu) and forest-based subsistence, fundamentally transforming tribal-environment relations. The article underscores tribal resilience through case evidence from archival and ethnographic research, arguing for environmental histories that center Indigenous epistemologies. It concludes by examining postcolonial continuities in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006) and its role in contemporary tribal struggles.