Towards a Sustainable Future: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge to Address the Challenges of Climate Change in West Bengal, India

The term “indigenous knowledge” (IK) refers to ideas, events, habits, and data that indigenous people have adapted into their culture through stories, folklore, and rituals. It may include oral transmission between generations. Climate change is a major issue, especially for emerging nations’ poor. Indigenous societies have learned a lot about environmental changes and developed complicated ways to manage them due to their close interaction with natural ecosystems and reliance on them for livelihood. Indigenous societies have achieved ecological balance and sustainability via reciprocity, guardianship, and respect for nature. West Bengal, with a 2% tribal population, has a tremendous store of traditional knowledge that, if acknowledged, welcomed, and incorporated, might help solve climate change challenges. This article presents ideas grounded in indigenous knowledge to aid in the development of sustainable initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. The research methodically selected case study analysis articles. Initial literature searches used PubMed and Google Scholar to find West Bengal, India-specific climate crisis, disaster management, and mitigation measures. Innovation lies in the study's careful assessment and synthesis of indigenous knowledge and climate crisis management literature from West Bengal, India. The study organized this field's expertise by carefully searching for and evaluating relevant publications. The systematic framework for presenting the data promotes awareness of indigenous knowledge's intricacies and involvement in climate change concerns, enriching this essential subject. The findings were presented according to a comprehensive classification framework, enabling a structured analysis and synthesis of the information obtained from the literature review.