“Community” as a receptive method for conserving the greens.

The pace of urbanization is accelerating every single day. We are simultaneously putting the environment at the risk of getting extinct at the same pace. Amidst the constant development process, few communities in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra on the contrary are induced in the conservation of the forests for many decades as a belief of spirituality and as part of their culture. Such forest patches are considered a sacred forest by locals, hence the name ‘sacred groves'. These sacred groves are locally known as “Devrai” and also are the biologically rich pockets of forest cover. The Devrai word came from two local words; that is, Dev meaning God and rai meaning forest. So, it means God’s Forest.

Sacred groves in Maharashtra act as a tool for nature conservation through the cultural beliefs of the community. These ‘Devrai’ are small patches of primeval forests that are dedicated to deities. The community holds a strong belief that the forest and human lives are closely connected, destruction to the forests will ultimately result in the destruction of human settlements. These groves are a rich source of biodiversity with fruit-bearing trees and small water bodies and act as a habitat for several species of birds and rare animals. One such species is ‘shekru’ which is a giant flying squirrel and is native to western ghats.

These ghats are one of the 34 globally important biodiversity spots. In 2006, the western ghats were proposed as the “world heritage site” and this has now been accepted by UNESCO. The groves in this part thus act as key benchmarks of less disturbed vegetation amidst other traditional and modern forms of land use. These primeval forests play a role in the maintenance of the local ecological balance, conservation of watersheds, and preservation of bio resources.

Various Devrais located across the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

Source: The Ensemble India.

Each village located in this region has their own cultural beliefs around these forests. So that villagers can access the forests for worship and resource extraction. The tribal, agro-pastoral communities such as Dhangar, Mahadeo Kolis, etc. worship the deities and look after these green patches. The forest spreads across from one to eight hectares in size but is occasionally much larger and contains a rich repository of plant species, massive old trees, indigenous biodiversity of its own. Often these patches of forests are associated with an emergent stream and have better soil conditions as compared to adjacent areas.

The conceptual ownership of the groves remains with the community, i.e the groves have not been measured or demarcated by the Forest Department, Revenue Administration, or by the local Panchayats (local government). This makes the boundary rather flexible and denoted only by the change in vegetation. Every Devrai belongs to a particular community, they have a temple within the forest, and priests take care of the maintenance and often make decisions regarding any upcoming development like to be made within the groves, locally this method is known as ‘kaul.’

IImage: Deities within the dense forest cover.

sourcehttps://www.google.com/search?q=devrai+in+maharashtra&rlz=1C1CHBF_enIN948IN948&sxsrf=ALeKk025PQnc2oSZFu3egyLIULEHD5OH8w:1623878699698&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZx7bIi53xAhWDjeYKHTwECDUQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1536&bih=706#imgrc=FiUBeRBXtcOzyM

Devrais are protected by certain unwritten, orally transmitted taboos and rules. The preservation of these Devrais is a result of strong ancient beliefs that any damage to it would anger the deity who would take revenge on the intruder who disrespects its integrity. Felling of trees, harming animals, and plucking leaves or flowers are usually forbidden. The resource use is governed by the local institutions of the settlements such as gram panchayat. They decide what elements are to be used from the forests, which trees are allowed to cut or a part of it could be used for traditional or medicinal purposes. Many a time dead wood or waste products are often collected by women to carry out their daily chores, and mainly for fuel purposes.

The threats currently experienced by these Devrais are the constantly changing land use pattern and development which takes place in the surrounding villages, which ultimately results in continuous pressure on the boundaries of the conserved forests. Some of these have been observed to be completely washed away by the construction of dams and submerged in the backwaters. Therefore, a close study needs to be undertaken while imposing any development and infrastructure projects exclusively in the western ghats of Maharashtra.

Fostering these traditions is also an example of the growing recognition around the world that Indigenous peoples are often the best protectors of natural resources. But, the main threat lies within the process of conservation. As the forests are being conserved based on culture with no scientific explanation provided to the young generations, leads to creating a disconnect between the next generation of the community and the sacred forest. Also, over the period the economics of land and resources have been changed and are driven by neighboring urban markets. These small interventions due to urbanization build pressure on communities i.e leading to change in the lifestyle and belief system, but there are always certain activities like annual rituals such as Jatras, folk dances, and ceremonies to appease the presiding folk deities or tree spirits are common in Devrai, says the Keystone Foundation’s, Anita Varghese. Post marriage rituals like visiting the forest goddesses, at times, lighting up the lamps to ward off evil spirits. Some sacred groves also host altars to deities. These communal activities act as a tool that brings the communities back to their roots.

The local inhabitants can be made aware of some of the ecological importance of these Devrais through an awareness campaign and a school education program. Strengthening the community by providing economic benefits in return for protecting the endangered species, such as promoting sustainable tourism where there’s an exchange of knowledge of conserving trees from the local inhabitants to the urban population. Initiatives like Manav sangrahalaya is one of its kind museum where communities and life is displayed. Communities from all over the country are invited and talks and seminars and live demonstrations are undertaken to make people aware of the rituals.

However, the concept of developing and managing ICCAs (Indigenous Community Conserved Areas), or creating Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC), and People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR) as registries of local biodiversity knowledge can act as a tool for assisting local communities to manage the groves proactively. Such new approaches and strategies may help in communicating the importance of these groves. This would also permit gaining government recognition of their rights over biodiversity and recognition of their traditional culture. Finally appropriate management today must include identifying ways of using alternate conservation strategies for groves. Ecodevelopment, Eco restoration, and sustainable tourism, through registering local Biodiversity Management Committees, can prevent the destruction of the fragile and biologically rich ecosystems of the groves.

The applied environmental research foundation) AERF has been working on sacred groves conservation in northwestern ghats for over 15 years. In the Sangameshwar block, AERF has revived the tradition of sacred groves and involved local people in planning as well as implementation for long-term conservation of the sacred groves. This initiative has turned out to be one of the most successful models to date when it comes to the conservation of groves. The above-mentioned foundation is offering a capacity-building course where it explores and analyses various conservation strategies which are implied by the foundation and then devising replicas to be implemented in other communities for the conservation of the forest.

Source: wandering Maharashtra https://www.google.com/searchq=devrai+forest+in+maharashtra&rlz=1C1CHBF_enIN948IN948&sxsrf=ALeKk03kZkVm3QU6qW-P_lfU_LkaBsFatw:1624038600275&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_jfue36HxAhWgIbcAHVatCeYQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1536&bih=763#imgrc=22VgZ9zKVoIwSM

ICCA = Indigenous Community Conserved Areas

BMC = Biodiversity Management Committees

PBR = People’s Biodiversity Registers

AERF = The applied environmental research foundation

References:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/janthro/2014/595314/

https://sacrednaturalsites.org/items/reviving-and-conserving-the-sacred-groves-of-maharashtras-western-ghats/

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/forests/revitalising-sacred-groves-48618

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2021/0322/Do-not-disturb-In-India-traditions-and-science-protect-sacred-forests