Dear nature lovers,

Greetings from oikos !

There are creative ways of entertainment amongst tribal and rural people.

Tribal and rural life style is market independent to a great extent. They make their living using locally available natural resources and biodiversity very wisely and try and make their living simple and easy.

Few most important things that they need are fuelwood, fodder, various kinds of ropes, containers, brooms etc. Each and every thing is kept or made with a great wisdom and simplicity. Amongst fuelwood, they select high calorific wood which gives good heat and burns for long time which makes cooking easier. Ropes are made from various plants like Agave, grass Imperata, Hemp etc. Few climbers like Merremia, Cryptolepis are used directly to tie headload of fuelwood or to tie thorn fence or wood compound. Many vessels in the kitchen are made of mud but few are also made by using dried wild bottle gourd varieties.

Few interesting things can be observed like Sokat - a Bidi lighter which is a small box made from a Moth cocoon and a piece of Bamboo. Soft cottony fibers of fruit of Kate Sawar tree, are filled tightly in this small box and then a spark is ignited by using flint stone so that this cotton picks up little fire on which a bidi is lighted !

Though all this stuff is getting replaced by plastics and metal available in the market, it is interesting to know how these local people make their living using all local materials.

Regards,

Ketaki & Manasi

With Team oikos !