Odisha became the first Indian state to launch an encyclopedia detailing tribal communities on Monday.
The purpose of the initiative was to document the age-old customs and traditions of these ethnic groups, an official release from Odisha state chief Naveen Patnaik's office said.
The five volumes of the Encyclopedia of Tribes in Odisha has been published by the state's Tribal Museum in partnership with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute.
The encyclopedia features 418 researched and edited articles on the state's tribes, including 13 that are categorized as vulnerable.
"The age-old culture and way of living of these tribal communities are changing fast and their cultural identity is disintegrating. A systematic documentation was the need of the hour, and we have tried to do that in this encyclopedia," professor AB Ota, who edited the five volumes, said.
Tribes constitute 22.85% of the state's overall population of 42 million. A total of 62 tribal communities live in the state.