Walking is a Way of Knowing: In a Kadar Forest

The Kadars are a small indigenous community in south India. Even though they no longer live deep in the forest, they still walk its paths every day. For them, walking is a way of knowing, not just a way of getting from place to place. This is the story of a Kadar elder who takes a young urban visitor through the tangled woods that make up his ancient home. The book captures an urban nature lover’s experience of learning from a forest-dweller — and is beautifully illustrated to bring alive the dark richness of an lndian tropical forest.

Madhuri Ramesh is an ecologist who first met the Kadars when she went to study the secretive Travancore tortoise in the Anamalai Hills. At present, she is completing her doctoral thesis on the political ecology of marine turtle conservation in Odisha, at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore.

Manish Chandi studied Economics in the Madras Christian College, and went on to work on a doctoral thesis on the Nicobar islanders after spending two decades in the islands. He worked in the Valparai plateau on the Anamalai Hills along with the Nature Conservation Foundation during which he collected folktales from various Kadars he lived and worked with.

Matthew Frame is a London-based illustrator. Since completing his Masters at Central St. Martins, Matthew’s practice has focussed on how illustration can address the issues surrounding social cohesion in the globalised world. Matthew’s intricate drawings play with texture and pattern to explore his passion for film, politics, trash culture and science fiction.