Bhubaneswar, Aug. 17 -- In Odisha's Rayagada district, 14 Saora tribal families in Engerba village are fighting to save their mother tongue from extinction, offering rice or pulses as meals to teachers and students as an incentive. The families contribute food grains to the SP Mangali Ashram school, where 62 students from Classes I to VIII learn in Saora and study the indigenous Sorang Sompeng script. The villagers established the school after realising that Saora children were gradually losing their language and traditional script amid the dominance of state languages in formal education. They pooled their savings, built a mud structure and began teaching children in Saora. "The idea was to ensure children learnt their mother tongue and So...