Ontological Displacement and Environmental Justice: A Postcolonial Ecocritical Reading of Pratibha Ray’s Adibhoomi

This paper examines the symbiotic relationship between the Bonda tribe of Malkangiri and their ancestral ecology as portrayed in Pratibha Ray’s Adibhoomi. Situated within Postcolonial Ecocriticism, the study critiques the anthropocentric logic of industrial modernity that threatens one of Odisha’s most ancient indigenous communities. While Ecocriticism is a contemporary academic discipline, the Bonda worldview reflects a primordial ecological consciousness rooted in spiritual and cultural interdependence with the natural world. The paper introduces the concept of ontological displacement—a condition that extends beyond physical relocation to signify the erosion of a community’s cultural being and cosmology. Through Ray’s narrative, the commodification of sacred groves and ecological spaces is shown to destabilize indigenous identity at its core. By contrasting tribal ecological wisdom with extractive developmental paradigms, the study argues that genuine environmental justice demands a shift from resource exploitation toward a bio-centric model of coexistence.