Ecosystem and People.

From ancient times humans were dependent on nature for survival. There was a curiosity and a belief about natural and cosmic elements being superior and stronger. There are many factors of human life that are governed by such beliefs. Over time these beliefs became part of their culture. It is amazing to see people's deep-rooted trust in their culture.

In India, if we trace this emergence and transition of nature-based belief systems then one can find the term ‘nirgun bhakti' which was established before the 6th CE AD. Where humans used to pray to the natural elements. Their rituals revolved around nature. In the post-Vedic period, the notion of God changed so did the practice of praying. But, from Vedas to Puranas everywhere in the Indian literature, you will find some of the other written evidence, about humans and their surroundings. And how human existence is solely dependent on nature. According to archeological studies before the Vedic period, Indian forests were burnt down for the expansions of the kingdoms and for the availability of agricultural fields. It led us to the study of Roomila T. Her study claims that the religions developed post-Vedic period which preaches vegetarian food diet is a direct response to a then ecological crisis going on in India at that time. This proves how the forests and other elements of nature were important leading to the conclusion that they had a natural as well as cultural significance

Talking about these greens of India, there are primeval forests which have a spread all across the land. These patches can continue to grow and sustain on their own, without any human intervention. Mainly these patches of forest have the oldest endemic species. A continuous large piece of land or many small patches of such forests can be identified as a ‘sacred grove’. Availability of these small patches indicates the exceeding human intervention in the natural territory. But, because of its uninterrupted existence, age, endemic species, footprint, and cultural significance, all of them individually or collectively can be tagged as natural heritage.

‘‘Forty percent of the earth’s forests are still defended by the local groups who live in and around them’’ - Scientific American.

There are communities in remote parts of India whose livelihood completely or partially depends on these groves. Their culture, practices, traditions, activities, economics, social conditioning, the notion of god, even settlement patterns are guided based on this vegetation. Regionally every community identifies these sacred groves differently. Like in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar people identify them as Sarna or Dev, Devrai or Devrahati in Maharashtra, Rulidevarkadu in Karnataka, Kovilkadu in Tamilnadu, and Kelawkyatag in Meghalaya. These communities have a culture highly based on nature. These indigenous sacred grove cultures diversify based on their deities. These sacred deities are linked with certain animals, trees, or shrubs. So that its importance gets established and because of culture, future conservation should take place. It is one of the prehistoric traditions of nature conservation created by ancestors of these communities.

Each of such forest deities has some rules which the cult has to follow. These rules are largely to govern their activities and to set some cap on human greed. The groves have provided them with food, water in the form of rains, and in return, communities nurtured the trees like their own child. To understand this in detail there is a sacred grove found in Manipur named umag gai, which has 365 deities. It is in the region sanamahism, where women from the region perform a ritualistic dance for the forest deities. During the festival of ‘Lai Haraoba’ the dance named ‘Laiching Jagoi’ gets performed. Such rituals, locations of deities, procession routes, folk tales, completely restricted forest areas, etc. were the part of this ancient maintenance module that is embedded in the culture. Apart from the physical and ecological benefits, the cultural connection by such green patches are one of the main reasons why these primeval forests are still thriving.

Image: Laiching Jagoi dance

Source: http://www.e-pao.net/epGallery

In technical terms, because of India's several climatic zones, these forest patches become the home for many exotic species. Locations like Jaintia, Khasi in the state of Assam, Aravali hills of Rajasthan, Deobhumi of Himachal, the Western Ghats which share small patches of sacred groves across the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala reflect the availability of an indigenous primeval forest in India. This contemplates India’s acing biodiversity compared to other parts of the world. This diversity plays an important role in biological research. They not only offer a medicinal, ecological, and nutritional value to human lives but also an economical value.

There are few such sacred groves that appeared even before human settlements. Such patches act as genetic resource banks. The knowledge obtained from these gene banks is later used in different fields for the betterment of human life. Creating a similar GenBank based on the technology will require a lot of investment and will have to completely rely on external sources. But if we understand the importance of these groves and nurture them correctly then all of this research work can be made available free of cost.

Distribution of sacred groves of India (source: “Cultural and Ecological Dimensions of Sacred Groves in India” by Malhotra, K.C., Gokhale, Y., and Chatterjee, S., 1998)

In the late 1700s, change in the socio-economic structure led to change in human behavioral patterns. In search of money and sudo better lifestyle people started moving away from their originating place. Becoming one of the main reasons for the change in the footprint of these forests especially, after globalization and urbanization.

Exploitation reached its peak during the colonial reign. Native community rights over these forests were then abolished by the rulers. High exploitation was because of the demand in the export and the price these species got in the international market. Resources obtained from these forests were of rare quality. Also, in those times exploitation was one of the means of showcasing the authoritative power over certain settlements. These all factors together affected the number of sacred groves in India.

The demand for land increased and that led to cutting down of these green swatches. Loss of these swatches then slowly started reflecting in through different issues, like rising in floods, landslides, droughts, change in microclimate, etc. Around the mid-1900 many types of research were conducted to find out the major reason behind this ecological crisis, it was due to a loss of green cover. Also, due to replacing original vegetation with commercially viable species.

Many initiatives and policies then were implemented via government and private organizations to undo these actions. In different parts of India, protection policies were suggested and are on different levels, starting from the community level to the national level. When the constitution of India was implemented in the year 1950, there were no provisions regarding the environment. It was the Stockholm Declaration in 1972, which made the Government of India look into environment protection. In the same year, the National Council for environment policy and planning was set up which later changed to the ministry of environment and Forest in 1985. The wildlife protection act was established in 1972 to look into wildlife management, but did not speak about the communities which reside within these areas. Then it got amended in 2002, in which the act started identifying people living in these primeval forests as tribes, with some sort of social ownership for the protection of these sacred groves. Similarly, India's Forest Rights Act of 2006, grants native tribal communities the rights to manage the forest which surrounds them. This was one of the smartest moves but isn't it took a lot of time for all of us to reach here.

The forest conservation act in the year 1980 looked into matters like deforestation, diversion of forests, etc. There are communities like Mendha and Marda which started voicing out in the 1980s for their community rights over common forest land, which they got back in 2006. It took more than a century to undo the law which got carried forward after colonization. After analysing the laws in-depth and considering the diverse countries like India, one thing gets clear that there is no proper involvement suggested or study undertaken to enact. Even to perform the conservation process on the ground the identification, awareness, proper legislation to preserve the green cover, allotment of common ownership, future expansion rules, etc. have to be in place on every operating scale.

The primeval forest of Europe is one of the largest examples of primeval forest with a UNESCO world heritage Tag. There are 12 countries that were part of this protection initiative and policy-making. This forest does have tribes living in them, also have agricultural areas, major cities, transport junctions, economic modules in place based on tourism. India is in need of similar controlled conservation modules for every such zone.

As global citizens to lessen the after-effects of future natural calamities, we need to create an empowered ecosystem. We can achieve this by being sensitive towards nature, opting for a bottom-up approach than the conventional top-down approach in conservation, taking proper actions on grassroots level, creating and abiding by the legislation on macro as well as micro level. For future bio diversity conservation it is necessary to organize programs that include and educates the younger generation from the native tribes to understand the importance of their natural and cultural heritage but through the newer scientific approach. In the end, it is all about respecting the nature and passing on the legacy to the next generation.

References -

Sacred groves of Manipur – ideal centers for biodiversity conservation - Ashalata Devi Khumbongmayum, M. L. Khan and R. S. Tripathi - https://www.jstor.org/stable/24109169

https://legaldesire.com/evolution-of-environmental-law-and-policies-in-india/

https://www.teriin.org/research-papers?search_api_fulltext=sacred+groves&field_rpaper_themes=52

The sacred groves and their significance in conserving biodiversity: an overview - Mohomad Latif khan, Ashatala, Devi Khumbongmayum, Radhey Shyam Tripathi

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sacred-groves-an-ancient-tradition-of-nature-conservation/

https://india.mongabay.com/2020/09/conserving-sacred-groves-through-communityparticipation/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sacred-groves-an-ancient-tradition-of-nature-conservation/

Cover Picture: Waterfalls of Meghalaya

Source: anic visuals