BOOKS

It is generally presumed that tribals in India tend to be healthy, living as they do in unpolluted surroundings away from the stresses and strains of modern living. This no longer hold good as evident from the many health reports appearing with health related problems. It is alarming that sufficient data regarding tribal health is not available with the government itself. The plight of tribals whose health parameters are already well below the national average is worsening. One of the basic factors which affect the tribal health is the physical environment from which majority of them draw their sustenance. Degraded eco-systems are no longer able to support tribal population, many of whom have registered a higher growth rate than the national average. On the contrary, there are tribal communities, which are actually declining and being threatened with extinction, because of malnutrition which renders them more susceptible to disease. The diseases which can be easily cured assume epidemic proportion among tribals because of isolation of their habitats, illiteracy and lack of access to medical care. The present study deals with human settlements, human activities and health among tribals of Rajasthan. Human settlements are territorially bounded socialsystem or subsystems (economic, material culture,