IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 26, Issue 5, Series 7 (May. 2021) 34-40 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2605073440 www.iosrjournals.org 34 |Page Utilization of Natural Resources in Tribal Life Dibyajyoti Ganguly Guest Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Ramsaday College, West Bengal, India Dr. Palash Chandra Coomar Former Joint Director of Census Operations, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India Contact Address: 94/4, P Road, Howrah, P.O. – Netajigarh, P.S. – Dasnagar, Pin – 711108, Howrah, West Bengal, India --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 06-05-2021 Date of Acceptance: 19-05-2021 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION It has generally been accepted that close relation with nature and living within its proximity used to give tribe a distinctive identity of its own as reflected in its thoughts and beliefs, activities and customary practices. But with the spread of education and rapid expansion of modernization process, the tribal population slowly but surely is being alienated from the nature. The tribal people used to derive nourishment, both materially and symbolically, from the nature and rely on it so heavily that it was thought to be a cause of techno- economic backwardness prevailing among them. It has become a stark reality of tribal life, particularly in those cases where life of tribals is intricately linked with nature as provider and protector of their life ways. Nature provides them food, fodder, fuel and makes available a rich collection of medicinal plants and all other basic requirements needed for survival. Hence it is no exaggeration to say that such tribals giving the impression of an ‘eco system people’ are the real friends of nature in true sense of the term. Conversely, they inculcate a healthy attitude towards nature treating it as a friend rather than a foe. In the present paper an attempt has been made to look into this intimate relationship between nature and tribe a little more closely and to see what extent it still holds some meaning to them. Human beings are capable of passing from one environment to another as well as of changing the conditions of a given environment to suit their own purposes; in truth the relation of life and environment is extremely intimate (MacIver-Page, 1950). But the capacities and attributes of the organism are related with the entire environment in which they manifest themselves. The environment is more than a conditioning factor of a life that can be conceived of a part form it. Furthermore every change in a living creature involves some change in its relation to environment; and every change in the environment make some changes in the response of the organic being. The environment is the habitation of human being in complete sense (MacIver-Page, 1950). Man tries to accustom with his environment to fulfill his wants. In this consequence of modification of the conditions of life, man creates a dual role in the environment i.e. an outer and an inner aspect. The outer milieu consists of constitutional modifications of nature, including our houses, cities or other means of communications which deals the whole appliances of our society and it is called as material culture. The inner milieu is the society itself. It consists of the organizations and the regulations, the traditions and institutions, the repressions and liberations of social life of what we collectively call as the social tradition. To the inner social milieu man is regulated through conscious response and habituation (MacIver-Page, 1950). Ultimately it can be stated that, the life of human being has an intense co-relation with the nature. The term ecology was first defined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866 as ‘the science of relations between organisms and their environment’ (Barmwell, 1989). The environment of human being stays in his outskirts of land, air, water, forest. These components of natural environment provide the inevitable resources to human being for their survival. We get our food, water and respiratory means from the surface of the Earth to satisfy the needs of our hunger, thirst and respiration. When we get fuel, minerals and ores form the stratum beneath the surface of the Earth which provides us the required energy to meet up with different economic pursuits. Thus the need of the human society is totally depended on the nature in a diversified manner and their way of gathering reflects the culture of the human being. Cultural ecology exhibits a vivid relationship between culture and its surrounding environment. Man is influenced by his environment and in turn influences the environment. It is believed that environment ordains a culture and environment controls a culture. Rappaport 1968, in his Ecosystem-based Model focused on the