| dc.description.abstract | India has a natural wealth of biodiversity, thanks to variations in its climates
and soil conditions and its geographical features, including rain forests, arid lands,
and mountains. Yet many of India’s most biologically rich regions are prone to
drought and floods or distant from the amenities of urban life. Many in these
regions live in poverty and relative isolation: their local products are unfamiliar in
most of the world, their public infrastructures are weak, and their skills are unrecognized.
Subsistence in these regions is a constant challenge. Local individuals and
tribal communities have long met those challenges by drawing on their local environments,
inventing effective agricultural techniques, and learning the medicinal
and nutritional value of nearby plants. Harsh conditions have done as much to
induce individual creativity and innovation as to limit them. | |
