ABOUT
KADAL
Our Focus
KADAL focuses on understanding how Traditional Ecological Knowledge—rooted in lived experience, cultural values, and everyday practices—is being reshaped by environmental change and socio-cultural transformations. We work to document and preserve this knowledge while pluralizing the ideas of conservation and sustainability. By recognizing diverse ways of knowing and relating to the ocean, KADAL seeks to create space for more inclusive, community-centered approaches to marine and coastal futures.
Our Collaborators
KADAL is an attempt to better understand the ocean and her people. KADAL emerged from the research project titled “Exploring Traditional Knowledge and Fisherfolk Perspectives on Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Conservation in Thrissur and Kollam, Kerala.” The project was supported by The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), the British Asian Trust, the Coexistence Consortium, and Elephant Family.
The research examined how changing marine ecosystems and shifting knowledge systems are reshaping the relationship between coastal communities and the ocean.
KADAL was formed as an outcome of the insights, reflections, and lived experiences gathered through this research. It is both a documentation platform and a space for critical engagement—bringing together research, sea lore, and community perspectives.
KADAL works as a platform for coastal communities, students, researchers, and institutions to document traditional knowledge, sea lores, journals, and related materials.
Mariamma Joseph
Community Lead
Liaison between coastal village elders and the KADAL platform for story documentation.
Dr. Lakshmi Rao
Dr. Lakshmi Rao
Analyzing seawater change and habitat preservation reports for our workshops archive.
Aswin Kumar
Coastal Researcher
Specializes in tracking traditional navigation routes and seasonal migration of fish schools.
Marine Anthropologist
Researcher focusing on the socioeconomic structures of fishing village societies.