EDITORIAL
We can hear the flapping of our fledgling – the first edition of the newsletter – is afloat to reach you. The first issue brings out a mixed bag of reading – articles as well as snippets.
We celebrate the subtler shades of sustainability in our articles. These articles encapsulate the various ramifications of sustainability and strive to perceive the meaning through the lens of biology, literature, and philosophy. The short and succinct snippets will take you to a mesmerizing journey adorned with various facets of art and culture entangled with our living forms.
We await your response, so please do not forget to write us back. It will re-energize us for the next issue in June.
ARTICLES
Fifty shades of food – gathering no-cost nutrition
Avik Ray Centre for studies in Ethnobiology, Biodiversity and Sustainability (CEiBa), West Bengal – 732103, India E-mail: avikray@ceibatrust.org Our imagination of food is depicted in appealing packages of flamboyant colors, rich aroma, varied texture and equally enticing ingredients. Many a time, the package bears the signature of its identity, epitomizes our desire and acceptance, etc. Upon disintegration of various primary components, whatever constituents our food yields, namely, cereals, fruits or vegetables, spices or condiments, animal…
The real life colourful tapestry of ecological sustainability and conservation
Sustainability, a widely used term in socio-political and environmental atmosphere, carries a long history of debate, a tryst with acceptance and decline since its inception. The general meaning of sustainability is “meeting our requirements without compromising the requirement for future”. There exists a plurality of definitions for sustainability but the idea became popular after the publication of Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” in 1987 and prioritized in First Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. As…
Scribbles on agro-biodiversity, culture and sustainability
Agriculture has been central to any great civilization, but the antiquity of plant-based subsistence is even more ancient. Right from the days of hunting and gathering, humans had become contingent of plant produce, be it fruits, nuts, tubers, roots, or grains1,2. Even before the initiation of organized agriculture, many cultural groups were employing plant resource in order to accomplish low-level food production. This long-term entanglement between humans and plants made possible various close encounters with…
Indebtedness: A way to read ‘Sustainability’
I think I first came across with the word sustainability in a Bengali science magazine meant for the teenagers. It was the first half of nineties. India was gearing itself for another word-Globalization. The naivety of the tender age made me believe that the word sustainability falls into the domain of science. The absence of any kind of serious discussion on sustainability in the everyday living of middle-class Bengali family, I vaguely understood that scientists,like…
GLIMPSES OF NATURE AND CULTURE
Honeybees offer us sweet memories of blooming landscape dotted with flowers under a sunny sky, the humming in a desolate afternoon, the aggressive defense against unprepared onlookers, and undoubtedly the… Our tryst with honey is not a recent one but is rooted in deep time, it has been an important food source for early Homo. According to many, foraging to… Fishing with a living fishing tool Perhaps we have heard or come across traditional fishing with various nets, sticks, stupefiers, or a wide range of bamboo traps in many shapes… Survival in the Anthropocene The sufferings of the biosphere through human activity is an unavoidable mark for the Anthropocene. We quantify pollution and extinction, define hotspots, and warn against climate… The flip side of GI tag and Basmati Geographical indications (GI) tag often adds charisma to any product and infuses a feel-good factor to the consumers. Drinking fine champagne or… The oldest law school in Europe takes care of plants too… Plants are our partners since time immemorial so are plant protective measures. There are numerous such instances both formal…An app of their own
The cool honey hunters – on the walls of the rock
Glimpses Of Nature And Culture
Glimpses Of Nature And Culture
Glimpses Of Nature And Culture
Glimpses Of Nature And Culture
