At the Rock Art Centre of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal the 5th Tribal Literature Festival was inaugurated by noted folk lyricist Mahendra Mishra. The TLF 2021 is commenced with the welcome address by Sudhir Shrivastav, he gave a brief introductory about the programme and detailed about the research papers to be presented with in these two days.

The keynote address was given by Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Raipur on the topic Tribal Literature: concept and relevance. In his keynote address he focused on the importance of oral tradition and tribal societies of India. On the nature of tribal literature and its Tribal Oral Literature has the potential of restoring the ecology of the globe.

The whole world is divided into two sects, one is the exploitation of the earth and destruction of the global environment, and the other is registration and maintenance of nature by nurturing the world around them. 

The modern environment scientists must learn from the tribal older knowledgeable persons to restore the earth to save this planet. Written tribal literature is certainly writing their pains and protests against the exploitation, but at the same time, the oral tradition of the tribal people has the resources of sustaining the earth.

Tribal Oral literature has the energy of maintaining social solidarity, the harmony of nature and animals, and the natural world view to eliminating the discrimination between humanity. Tribal people have the worldview of Vedic literature.

Mukesh Mishra gave the inaugural address of the festival.  He his address he praise Mahendra Mishra for giving a road map of tribal literature. He said more research to be done on the oral literatures as it gives a deep knowledge about tribal life.