Abstract: Culture, traditions, and history are profoundly shaped by a region’s ecological conditions and natural environment, which influences and alters the lives of both human and non-human inhabitants. The detailed, intrinsic expressions of these aspects are often inscribed in the folklore of that region. Folklore, especially folktales, vividly portrays the interconnected relationship between ecology, culture, and collective consciousness, revealing a symbiotic bond between humans and the natural world. Kachchhi folktales, rooted in a land characterised by vast desert terrain, recurrent droughts, and a livelihood largely dependent on animals, portray the resilience and sustainable practices of communities facing ecological challenges. The study contributes to the underexplored area of Kachchh’s folk literature and unearths an embodied emotional bond that creates a unique worldview. It aims to analyse seven selected folktales of Kachchh, primarily from Duleray Karani’s folktale collections, which provide ample information about the Kachchhi language and literature. Using qualitative textual analysis, the paper examines the presence of ecological imagination and the active role of nature in shaping human life and relationships with the surroundings. The study is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of ecocriticism and environmental anthropology, drawing on Lawrence Buell’s concept of environmental imagination and Govindrajan’s perspectives on human-animal relations, respectively. 

Keywords: Kachchh, folktales, ecocriticism, environmental imagination, human-nonhuman symbiosis