Greetings from the National Folklore Support Centre! We are glad to announce that we are now accepting contributions for the Encyclopaedia Indica Kids: Culture and Ecology project. Those with expertise and interest in the environment and the ways in which ecology generates cultural practices are welcome to write for this pioneering initiative to revitalize primary education and our engagement with our environment.

The Encyclopaedia would examine and present scientific information and folklore surrounding plants and trees, animals, and birds found in India. The Encyclopaedia idea is drawn from the fact that each animal, plant, and bird thrives in a unique ecosystem. While the scientific information related this has been vastly documented and written about by ecologists, the cultural expressions relating to unique ecosystems have not been documented. By bringing these two disciplines together, the proposed encyclopaedia would make an innovative contribution to primary education. As it is to be organized for children, it will lend itself to the production of innumerable educational products such as games, rhymes, songs, and local practices as well.

Contributors would have to put together entries on the folklore surrounding a particular species – including and not limited to use in rituals or folk remedies, role in myth, beliefs, totems or taboos, folk tales or folk toys.