Abstract
Conservation of nature and natural resources has been a much challenging task in the present state of affairs where economy prevails over ecology. International treaties and conventions are signed and policies, laws and Acts have been enacted by the countries across the world, however, hostilities remain while applying the protected area policies which largely deprive indigenous communities from their traditional rights. It hurts their feelings and hence changes their behaviour, which impacts the objective, negatively. Historically, religion being a product of feelings and beliefs has been used as a powerful tool for nature conservation. Making age-old religious entities such as sacred landscapes, sacred groves and sacred species by various cultural groups are the live manifestations of historical, cultural and emotional attachment of human beings with nature and natural resources. The philosophy of religion can continue to be used as a powerful tool for mitigating negative impacts of current anthropogenic pressures on the nature and its resources. With this background, the present review aims to analyse various practices of nature and natural resource conservation as embedded in the religions.
Highlights
Feelings and desires are the motivational forces behind all human endeavours and human creation [1], and the similar forces are believed to evolve the process of nature conservation [2,3]
The present study aims to analyse various practices of nature and natural resource conservation as embedded in the religions
The importance of sacred groves, sacred landscapes and sacred species should not be viewed merely in the economic and livelihood perspectives but these entities need to be respected as the historical evidence of human relationship with nature and its components
Summary
Feelings and desires are the motivational forces behind all human endeavours and human creation [1], and the similar forces are believed to evolve the process of nature conservation [2,3]. Religion being a product of feelings and beliefs, historically this instrument is used as a powerful tool for nature conservation. The sense of belonging in nature has been created by performing various rituals, and many of them are still practiced today by various religious sects [4]. The diverse components of nature, whether living or non-living, have been attracting human curiosities since time immemorial that is reflected in the religious symbols of such components. It is felt that the religious norms and ways of nature conservation have often been neglected, misunderstood, or purposefully misrepresented with due course of time [6,7]
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