This volume provides cartographic representation of information generated by the People of India project on the distribution of cultural traits and languages, linguistic traits, anthropometry, demographic dimensions of population, and biological traits. Analysis of this data suggests patternsin the distribution of traits, which are mapped in this Atlas. The Atlas presents this distribution of traits in three parts: ecology and cultural traits; language and linguistic traits; and demographic and biological traits. There are in all 149 maps. Of these, 72 are on ecology and culturaltraits, covering a wide spectrum - including environment, distribution of communities, cropping patterns, food habits, social organization, and occupations. The distribution of language families and of linguistic traits which cut across language families is presented in 16 maps. There are 7 mapscovering demographic dimensions such as sex-ratios, household sizes, marital status, and literacy. Finally, 54 biological maps present the distribution of somatometric variations, dermatoglyphics, blood groups, and several other genetic traits.

The tribals contribute a share of about eight per cent population of the country s population and spread over about 1/5 part of the country s land with 500 different tribal groups having special cultural traits and identity. Keeping in view the importance of ethnography of every tribal group, there is a gap in literature. This was a voluminous work, so I have decided to work on major tribal groups residing in different parts of the country.