Explanation:

The TWAC was formed in l993 from a project for creating tribal art funded by the Australian High Commission, New Delhi. This cooperative was founded and is directed by Bulu Imam, the environmentalist, who also happens to be the Regional Convener of the Hazaribagh chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The raison d’etre for the founding of the cooperative was 1. To highlight illegal opencast coal mining and destruction of forests vital to the tribals as well as tigers and elephants using them as corridors, 2. For highlighting the prehistoric rockart of the region which is a continuing tradition in the art of the tribal people of the North Karanpura valley threatened since l987 by the opencast coal mining by the Central Coalfields Limited through the North Karanpura Coalfields Project which will destroy l800 sq. kilometers of forest and tribal lands and displace 203 tribal villages, and 3. To bring to the tribal women of the region a sense of strength in their identity and as a means of economic support in facing both official harassment in face of the mining project destabilizing their lives and the traditional contempt for these women in Indian society at large.