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Context:

Recently the Supreme Court told the Union government to create a comprehensive policy for the management of sacred groves across the country.

About Sacred Grooves

Sacred groves are small areas of trees traditionally protected by the local community for religious and cultural significance. They are also important for the protection of local biodiversity. It also serves as a haven for nature and spirituality.

Sacred Groves in India

Sacred groves are scattered all over India. However, they are mainly found in forested areas such as the Western Ghats, the Himalayas and the northeastern and central hills.

Shelters: These sanctuaries harbor numerous species of trees, vines, medicinal plants, animals, birds, lizards, snakes, frogs and other creatures that have become rare elsewhere in the landscape.

Classification of Sacred Groves

• Traditional Sacred Groves – It is the place where the village deity resides, who is represented by an elementary symbol.
• Temple Groves – Here a grove is created around a temple and conserved.
• Groves around the burial or cremation grounds.

Examples of sacred groves include the Greco-Roman temenos, various Germanic words for sacred groves, and the Celtic nemeton, which was largely but not exclusively associated with Druidic practice.

Uses of Sacred Groves

Traditional uses:  The vegetation cover helps reduce soil erosion and prevents desertification as in Rajasthan. They sometimes help in recharging aquifers as well.

Modern uses:  They harbor great genetic diversity and in urban landscapes act as "lungs" to the city as well, providing much-needed vegetation cover.

Importance of Sacred Groves

• The sacred grove is an important element connecting nature and culture;
• The sacred grove is often an anchor of cultural identity;
• A sacred grove can be an effective means of environmental protection because it is embedded in local and traditional belief systems;
• The sacred grove is of great value to conservation ecology, for example:
  • • As areas of high biological diversity;
    • As a refuge for rare or endangered species;
    • As sites that protect freshwater resources;
    • As indicator sites showing potential natural vegetation in areas exposed to environmental degradation.

Significance

Biodiversity Conservation – Sacred groves are important repositories of floral and faunal diversity that local communities have sustainably maintained. They are often the last refuge of endemic species in a geographic area.

Aquifer Recharge – Groves are often associated with ponds, streams or springs that help meet the water demands of local residents. Vegetative cover also helps recharge aquifers.

Soil Conservation - The vegetation cover of sacred groves improves soil stability in the area and also prevents soil erosion.

Threats to the Sacred Groves

• Disappearance of traditional belief systems that underpinned the concept of sacred groves. These systems and their rituals are now considered mere superstition.
• Sacred groves in many parts of our country have been destroyed due to rapid urbanization and development interventions such as roads, railway lines, dams including commercial forestry. Encroachment has led to the shrinking of some of the country's largest groves.
• Many groves are suffering due to 'Sanskritisation' or conversion of primitive forms of nature worship into formal temple worship.
• Invasion of exotic weeds such as Eupatorium odoratum, Lantana camara and Prosopis juliflora is a serious threat to some groves.

Strategy to be adopted for protection and conservation of sacred groves

It is also important to emphasize that cultural values ​​are dynamic and can change enormously over time. Traditional belief systems can also change, resulting in the abandonment of sacred natural sites and the relinquishment of protection associated with them by local communities, especially as younger people are forced to work the land to earn a living. In such situations, the protection of sacred natural sites can be greatly enhanced by creating "buffer zones" around the sacred site itself.

Policy Framework

READ ABOUT-

SACRED GROVES

Source:

THE HINDU