BEYOND THE HUMAN SCREEN: CASE STUDY OF BOVINE RELATIONALITY AND ECOCRITICAL FUTURES

This paper presents a case study of bovine–human relationality in the desert ecologies of western India, focusing on Kachchh, located at the edge of the Thar desert. Based on The Kachchh Cattle Study 2024, a field investigation conducted across nine talukas and forty villages, the research examines the ecological, economic, and cultural dimensions of cattle rearing in arid regions. The study documents how cattle continue to play a central role in household livelihoods, ecological adaptation, and cultural practices despite persistent

challenges such as fodder scarcity, inflation, and modernization. The paper is framed within Third World Environmentalism, emphasizing the interconnection between poverty, ecological degradation, and resource distribution, and engaging with the concept of the

environmentalism of the poor. Drawing on perspectives from Ecocriticism, Eco-Marxism, Eco-Feminism, Deep Ecology, and critiques of Anthropocentrism, the study situates pastoral practices and panjrapole within broader debates on multispecies ethics, sustainability, and social justice. The research further identifies a gap in existing digital cattle-management technologies, which remain largely text-based, linguistically exclusive, and inaccessible to

illiterate pastoral and tribal communities. The paper outlines the need for accessible, multilingual, voice-based digital tools as a potential intervention to support cattle care, ecological sustainability, and rural livelihoods, while maintaining the ethical and cultural dimensions of human–animal relationships in arid landscapes.