Religious sentiments saved trees in India
Religion World. For a great reason, India should be thankful for the religious beliefs of the people. These beliefs have been greatly influential in saving the trees. From praying the trees to protecting them, many rituals have been helping save the nature and in turn ecological balance. Right from the early period till present day people in India have their very own reasons to worship the trees and this has been the key to protect our environment.
Apart from worshipping, India had kings like Ashoka who paved way for afforestation in those times itself. This plan to develop social forestry has been the model for the world to take cue and continue. In fact we have a specific tree breed named after the King because he encouraged its breeding across the main roadways in those times.
The sacred grove tradition was an intrinsic part of the Indian ecological imagination and tradition. There was the kovilkādu in Tamil Nadu, kāvu in Kerala, nandavana or daivavana in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, deorai in Maharashtra. Preserved for centuries in the outer precincts of the village these sacred groves gradually grew into rich ecological repositories and are facing threats of decimation today because of population pressure and neglect.
Many plants and animals have from historical times been considered sacred in India by various communities. The most outstanding examples are the peepal tree (ficus religiosa). The banyan tree (Ficus ‘bengelensiss, and Khejdi tree (Prosopis cineraria), and these have been traditionally revered and therefore never cut. There are a number of other trees and plants considered sacred and grown in temple premises and are protected in other localities. More than a hundred such species of trees/plants in India are considered sacred by various communities and religious faiths. These include the sandalwood tree, beetlenut, palm, neem, coconut palm, juniper, champa, lotus, tulsi, pepper, etc. Such traditional cultural attitudes, though based on religious faith, have made significant contribution in the protection and propagation of various species of trees and plants in India.
One of the finest examples of traditional practices in India based on religious faith which has made a profound contribution to nature conservation has been the maintenance of certain patches of land or forests as “sacred groves’ dedicated to a deity or a village god, protected, and worshipped. These are found all over India, and abundantly along the Western Ghats, the west coast, and in several parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu amd Maharashtra. In Kerala there are hundreds of small jungles dedicated to snakes (Sarpakavu, Sarpa meaning snake, kavu meaning jungle). There are also Ayyappan kavus dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, the most famous of which, visited by millions of devotees every year, being the sacred hill of Sabarimala with an Ayyappan temple.
Environmental expert Madhav Gadgil says, “Sacred groves ranged in extent from fifty hectares or more to a few hundred square metres. Where the network. of sacred groves has remained intact till recent times, as in the South Kanara district of the west coast, one can see that they formed island of climax vegetation at densities of 2 to 3 per. sq. km, ranging in size from a small clump to a hectare or more, and originally covering perhaps 5 per cent of the land area. This must have been a very effective way of preserving tropical biological diversity, for we are still discovering new species of plants which have disappeared from everywhere else, in these sacred groves.”
In spite of the depletion of forests in many parts of India, some sacred groves still remain intact as oases in deserts, conserving rich biological diversity. The maintenance of sacred groves can thus he considered to be an outstanding example of a traditional practice that has contributed to forest conservation, albeit in a small measure. There are also examples of sacred ponds attached to temples in many parts of India. Some of these have been responsible for the protection of certain endangered species of turtles, crocodiles, and the rare fresh water sponge.
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