Impact of socio-cultural practices by indigenous communities on transforming riverine landscapes
Landscapes around the world express a long-standing, intimate relationship between people and their natural
environment. They are manifestations of nature's and humans' collaborative efforts. In India, natural landscapes are
categorised as associative cultural landscapes, which have powerful cultural or religious associations. Traditional
practises along riverine landscapes have been conceptualised under "learning from the river," which responds to the
imprints of the flowing river and aims to sustainably maintain and improve ecosystem functions and diversity. But
due to urbanization, infrastructure development, agriculture, modified water flow regimes, and religious-cultural
activities, these multifunctional areas have undergone extreme alteration. The scales of economic, monetary, and
financial gains are usually used to measure concepts of development. For this reason, there has to be a greater
awareness about the need to protect the environment with effective planning and the ability to strike a fine balance
between development and environmental protection. Hence, this study focuses on: i) constructing a visual narrative
of the socio-cultural practises of indigenous communities along riverine landscapes, followed by ii) documenting and
analysing settlement patterns and dwellings.
