Bulu Imam

Bulu Imam (born 31 August 1942) is an environmental activist working for the protection of tribal culture and heritage in Jharkhand. On 12 June 2012, he received the Gandhi International Peace Award, 2011 at the House of Lords in London. He is also a recipient of the Padma Shri (2019). He is the grandson of Syed Hasan Imam, who was a leading Barrister and Judge of Calcutta High Court (1912–1916), and the President of the Indian National Congress (Bombay Session, 1918). His daughter, Cherry, is married to Kunwar Ashish Bir Singh Tekari of Tekari Raj.

Since 1987, he has been the Convenor of INTACH Hazaribagh Chapter, and in 1991, discovered the first rock art of Jharkhand at Isco, and subsequently over dozen rock art sites in the North Karanpura Valley. In 1993, he brought to light the Khovar (marriage) art, and then the Sohrai (harvest) murals painted on the walls of the mud houses of the Hazaribagh villages. He showed the connection between the region's rock art and the [http://tribalartofhazaribagh.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/photo-gallery-painted-houses-and-women.html painted village houses]. By 1995, he established the Sanskriti Museum & Art Gallery in Hazaribagh along with the Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC) have promoted the tribal art of the region, holding over 50 international exhibitions of Sohrai and Khovar paintings in Australia, Europe, and UK. He is the author of the book Bridal Caves (INTACH, New Delhi, 1995); [https://web.archive.org/web/20160305102000/http://gandhifoundation.org/2014/12/05/antiquarian-remains-of-jharkhand-by-bulu-imam/ Antiquarian Remains of Jharkhand] (Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2014), and has written monographs on tribes like the Birhors and the Santhals. He has made several films on tribal art and culture of Jharkhand. He is a researcher and an authority in fields related to archaeology, tribal and rock art, vernacular folklore and history. Provided by Wikipedia