Integration of Identity in Fragmented Forestscape: Bioregional Possibilities and Place-based Orientations in Sheela Tomy’s Valli: a novel

The articulation of place-based attachments and restoration of human and natural bond keeping place in the center is the central preoccupation of Bioregional studies. Along with addressing the ecology of the place, it analyses the cultural aspects and human behavior in the context of that specific locale. It is both a socio-environmental movement and a philosophy which seeks conscious and sensitive human approach in the context of their place/land. Sheela Tomy’s novel Valli: a novel stiches together the geography, ecology and bio politics of Kalluvayal, a village set in Northern Kerala, rich in unique flora and fauna. It is an environmental novel in which forest is placed as ‘Place’ and emerges as the main protagonist whose story and history are parallel to that of its inhabitants (human and other-than-human). This paper intends to address core bioregional values and then explore the novel in terms of those values as it demystifies the secrets of the forest in which history and imagination, culture and rituals, beliefs and practices, myths and superstitions, legends and folklores, songs and stories, survival and resistance, and many heard and unheard voices of dwellers as well as those of voiceless beings are all together mingled inseparably. This paper attempts to shed light on vividly portrayed struggle of indigenous people—the rightful keepers of land—for their valli (earth), for their home –mother forest—against state policies of forceful land encroachment, and increasing deforestation for the sake of tourist industry and modern developments.