All Posts

An observation near IIT Jammu, April 2026 The evening sky near IIT Jammu, the world just outside a campus built on control, softly dissolving into something older. Just outside my IIT Jammu campus itself a representation of controlled aesthetics, planned structures, and the modern desire to organise nature into measurable forms - another world briefly appeared before me. A world not built upon control, but upon care. My observation is based on a Bakarwali tribal group during

The Search After a three-hour drive and another hour of walking, we were told that if we wanted to meet the herders, we would probably need to rent a vehicle, as they were quite far away. After a quick packet of Wai-Wai noodles, we rushed to the next village to look for one. Our race was against the sun. Once the sun set, we were told, the herders would pack up. As luck would have it, we found the herders on our way to the village at Rhunghtum. They were camping there. The th

Ajay Immanuel Gonji Introduction In the summer of 2025, my colleagues and I conducted fieldwork in the Yuksam district of western Sikkim, India. Chiefly, the inhabitants of our study site were engaged in farming, agro-pastoralism, and eco-tourism. We asked our interviewees questions about the nature of their relationship with the land, its living beings, its seasons, and the changes they have observed in recent years. Using a multimethod approach – primarily involving semi-