Eco Pedagogical Practices of Rai Community of Sikkim

Ecopedagogy, an education grounded in sustainability, embodies a new paradigm designed to promote sustainable civilisations from an ecological perspective. It functions as a transformative strategy for addressing the current condition of human, societal, and environmental issues and interdependencies. The state of Sikkim includes the Rai population, categorised as part of the Most Backward Classes, which have historically inhabited in rural and forested regions. The researcher employed an unstructured interview technique and carried out significant field data collection to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the ecopedagogical practices employed within the Rai community as part of a qualitative research study. The study examines the diverse ways in which the Rai community interacts with nature-based indigenous medicine, natureorientated religious beliefs and rituals, culturally important food habits related to nature, and the use of ecologically sustainable tools.