Reorienting Environmental Education A Study into Indigenous Values ​​and Practices

INTRODUCTION Environmental crisis is one of the major threats facing humanity today. Despite our sustained efforts to counter environmental crisis, it still remains a serious and daunting challenge before us. From Earth summit (1992), to the recent ones as Copenhagen summit (2009), Cancun summit (2010) not much has changed. That not much has been attained in India too, is clearly reflected in the latest CAG report (2010-11) which came down heavily on the ministry of environment for lapses in the implementation of its green schemes. Whether it is afforestation, biodiversity, pollution control or creating awareness, 93% of the project, it was observed did not achieve the targeted objectives. Irrefutably our planet is slowly but silently dying. This crisis is not just about environmental issues. It is also about how human interact with the world. It is a crisis of perception involving a lack of ecological or systemic thinking; it is a crisis fueled by a lack of purposeful, philosophical thought. This has resulted into a general lack of understanding about one's place in an ecological world and has negatively influenced the relationship between man and nature. It is the intersection of these two issues that one needs to explore: the connection between the presence of ecological, philosophical thought about human interaction with the natural world, and our current ecological crises. One of the prime contributors to the problem perhaps is the modern model of development that has originated in the context of materialistic and competitive or rather, mutually conflicting, conceptions of human beings and the universe. It seems to be based on the assumption that the goal of human endeavor should be mastery, victory, domination and control of nature for development and progress. Mesmerized by the benefits of economic development and its effects on fostering modernity, modern man has either completely ignored the natural environment or viewed it as something to be overcome with grit and ingenuity (Hannigan, 2014). The materialistic- consumerist outlook has resulted in loss of harmony between man and nature and disturbed the balance between human needs and natural resources. The