Traditional ecological knowledge based early warning systems for adaptation to climate change

The tribal communities have a symbiotic relationship with the forest and natural resources which are beneficial for the mutual existence. The traditional ecological knowledge-based early warning system of the indigenous communities has a robust mechanism to predict, forecast, analyse and disseminate required information useful for the early prediction of hazards and accordingly to mitigate them with suitable climate change adaptations. The main aim of the present study is to document plants and animal-based knowledge used by the tribes of Adilabad district for early warning purposes to tackle and unforeseen circumstances. The study resulted in identifying 55 species of biotic and abiotic nature covering four knowledge spheres for ethnoecological purposes. The tribal communities are using indicators of animals (06), atmospheric sources (09), birds (07), cosmological sources (10), insects (09), plant-based (04), living beings from water (07) and water sources (02) to predict the occurrence of various types of hazards.