When thinking of forest conservation, a ‘national park-sanctuary’ approach should make room for the vitality of sacred groves

Local sacred groves have national and global significance even as they play a vital role in conservation efforts due to high biodiversity, important ecosystem services and community spiritual value

The dominant paradigm in conservation seems to be the ‘national park-sanctuary’ approach that asserts the creation and conservation of large tracts of unfragmented forests and the fauna (including charismatic megafauna such as tigers) that inhabit them. Significantly successful, as a result, India today has 7,15,342.61 sq kms of land under forests accounting for 21.76 per cent of its total area as of 2023. 

The country has 106 national parks, 563 wildlife sanctuaries, 115 conservation reserves and 220 community reserves accounting for 1,75,169.42 sq km or approximately 5.32 per cent of total area. 

However, a rapidly growing Indian economy’s ravenous appetite for land and resources and the priority accorded to developmental imperatives in the political agenda is likely to place severe constraints on future availability of large tracts of forests for national parks,  sanctuaries and reserves. 

Even as environmentalists continue to push for more contiguous forest cover to be designated as national parks and sanctuaries, it is also vital for them to recognise existing and future developmental pressures. Hence it is crucial to think in terms of small, local, fragmented and community-relevant conservation as part of a vital (and supportive) second tier of conservation. 

These small tracts of forests found across the country have existed for hundreds of years and often contain high biodiversity, help in water retention, provide local ecosystem services and hold deep spiritual meaning for local communities which motivates them to protect the groves. 

The Last Haven

India is estimated to have between 100,000 and 150,000 sacred groves with 13,270 of them being documented thus far. Devrai, Devkad, Devban, Oran, Kavu, Church forests or sacred groves. Different local names for local forest spaces were kept aside for religious, cultural and spiritual reasons. Found across the world, particularly in India, Ethiopia, Ghana, Japan and Morocco, these spaces embody a distinctive union of nature, culture and conservation. 

Dating back to ancient civilisation, sacred groves in India have been connected with Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Often virgin land, these forest spaces are kept aside to conserve and are managed by the local and indigenous communities, conserved for their genetic diversity.

These micro-ecosystems are home to many rare and endangered species as well as medicinal plants. Regarded as last haven, these ecosystems are rich in the original genetic pool and serve as natural repositories. Local healers or vaids often address and treat local health issues through the medicinal plants found here.

Besides being significant and well-known for their rare and endangered species, the sacred groves have strong cultural and spiritual relevance. Mostly located near sites of worship, these groves are considered the home of forest gods, spirits and ancestors. 

An integral component of their ethnic identity, sacred groves are managed as per the local laws, customs, beliefs and traditions. Traditionally, local communities residing in the vicinity of sacred groves would have grown up with stories of forest spirits and deities that preserve the ecosystem. Often their everyday lives, well-being and the economy are interconnected with cultural practices and rituals that pay obeisance to these deities. 

They have a cultural memory of living in deep reverence of the belief systems, where the human, non-human and the elemental are interwoven in a sacred co-existence. Examples of such cultural belief systems abound in the tales of Bonbibi in Sunderban, Waghoba in Aarey Forest among many others. Often orally transferred from generations to generations, their beliefs and traditions prevent anyone from harming these micro-ecosystems.

These communities, (especially the elderly) with their profound knowledge of the ecosystem, have their traditional methods of water conservation, resource usage, regeneration of the flora, seed preservation, indigenous agricultural and food practices among others such that resources are optimally, respectfully and ethically used and not depleted. 

These traditional knowledge systems need to be preserved and adapted into the mainstream conservation practices so that we have context-specific, season-specific, and grounded methods of conservation rather than blanket national conservation policies for all kinds of spaces. 

Sacred Groves in the Times of Neoliberalism

In a neo-liberal, globalised political economy, such ecosystems in different parts of the country inevitably get transformed as they are marred by the encroachment of modernity and development. With the eroding indigenous cultures, there is a huge threat to sacred groves and their preservation. 

With more and more migration to the cities, there is a striking decline among the younger generations in learning about, maintaining and conserving sacred groves. Modern conservation needs to turn their minds and efforts to conservation of these micro-ecosystems. 

Parallely, it is becoming urgent to conserve, revive these micro-conservation spaces. 

There are multiple examples from around the world where sacred groves are being revived and restored by the indigenous communities such as Chitalanka sacred grove in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh which was transformed with the help of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and District Mineral Foundation scheme; Maausk in rural Estonia, Karakol sacred valley in Siberia, thus centering on local conservation efforts. 

There are fundamental differences in their understanding of the forest space, the ecosystem, and its beings, from the bureaucratic or legal or developmental understanding of the space, and often these two perspectives have a conflictual relationship. 

More meaningful and frequent dialogues need to happen between the two worldviews —  traditional and modern, whereby the respect for the space, its oral stories, and cultural relevance are embraced into the policy framework whereby the state’s top-down approach is inverted to incorporate the local, decentralised, sacred-grove centered model of conservation.

Colonial conservation favored fortress conservation where locals were restricted from living inside the parks. Indian national parks, largely designed on the same idea, have now resulted in large tracts of fragmented broken forests. 

With rapid urbanisation, increasing population pressure, and creation of new conservation spaces will result in further fragmentation of existing forests. Hence, these micro-ecosystems have thus become more important and relevant in today’s multi-fragmented India. 

Sacred groves need to be viewed as a loose network of key microenvironments whose protection can help constitute a nationwide, secondary tier of ‘small-local-fragmented’ conservation that can support the traditional ‘big-contiguous’ conservation approach for both flora and fauna. 

Authors: Prof. Chaitanya Ravi, Faculty of Public Policy, FLAME University; Prof. Rajitha Venugopal, Faculty of Literary and Cultural Studies, FLAME University & Prof. Abhineety Goel, Faculty of Environmental Studies, FLAME University.