Sacred Groves in Odisha: A Study among the Santals

Abstract

A significant tradition of nature worship is that of dedicating and according protection of patches of forests to ancestral spirits/deities. These vegetation patches have been designated as Sacred Groves (SGs). Such a grove may consist of a multi-species, multi-tier primary forest, a clump of trees belonging to one species or even a single old tree, depending on the history of the vegetation and local culture (Malhotra et al., 2000. Sacred Groves of India: A Travelling Exhibition. Bhopal, India: IGRMS). Although there is a variation in the way these groves have been defined/described, most of the scholars emphasise the near natural nature of the vegetation and the preservation of vegetation and/or biodiversity through local taboos and sanctions that entail spiritual and ecological values. Thus, SGs are segments of landscape, containing vegetation and other forms of life and geographical features that are delimited and protected by human societies under the belief that to keep them in a relatively undisturbed state is an expression of important relationship to the divine or to nature (Hughes and Chandran, 1998. Sacred groves around the earth: An overview. In: Ramdrishnan PS, Saxena KG and Chandrashekara UM, eds. Conserving the Sacred for Biodiversity Management. pp. 69–86, Oxfords and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi). Therefore, SGs’ study has been carried out among the Santal people residing in Sona Tangri village under Ghasipura police station of Anandapur subdivision, Keonjhar district of Odisha, to gain an understanding about the problems of bio-diversity in studied Santal people.