Conservation through Traditional Knowledge: a Review of Research on the Sacred Groves of Odisha, India
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Conservation through Traditional Knowledge: a Review of Research on the Sacred Groves of Odisha, India Subhani Rath 1
&
Alison A. Ormsby 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Sacred groves are patches of forests protected and used by people for cultural and religious reasons. India has more than 100,000 sacred groves as a result of its high cultural, geographic, and ethnic diversity. Sacred groves can be valuable in conserving biodiversity and in providing ecosystem services. Although numerous sacred forests from biodiversity-rich regions of India, such as the Western Ghats and Himalayas, have been studied, the sacred groves of eastern India are not well documented. We analysed the available literature on the sacred groves of Odisha, a densely forested state in eastern India and home to many indigenous tribal communities that are dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods. There are an estimated 2166 sacred groves across the state of Odisha, concentrated largely in tribal districts. Most of these groves are small, many under one hectare. We conclude that traditional indigenous tribal cultural practices have conserved natural areas in Odisha, but that these areas and practices are under increasing pressure from industrialization, exploitation of valuable forest resources, and expanding agriculture. Keywords Sacred groves . Religious practices . Biodiversity conservation . Indigenous tribal communities . Odisha . Eastern India
Introduction Sacred groves, small patches of forests dedicated to deities and ancestral spirits, are classic examples of culturally sensitive community-based natural resource management (Ormsby and Bhagwat 2010). Sacred groves have cultural and spiritual significance for the indigenous communities that care for them, exhibit rich biodiversity, and provide ecosystem services to the local communities that have protected them over the centuries throughout the world (Fig. 1). India has the highest concentration of sacred groves in the world, estimated at over 100,000 (Malhotra et al. 2007) owing to its high geographic and ethno-cultural diversity, and these
* Subhani Rath [email protected] Alison A. Ormsby [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute for Science Education and Research, Room 214, Research Complex Building, Nadia, Kolkata, West Bengal 741246, India
2
University of North Carolina Asheville, Environmental Studies, One University Heights, Asheville, NC 28804, USA
groves occur in many regions with a variety of different cultural practices (Gadgil and Guha 1992). Indigenous communities across India have protected forest patches as sacred groves in the vicinity of their villages for generations. The number and spatial distribution of sacred groves creates a network that preserves “a sizeable portion of the local biodiversity in areas where it would not be feasible to maintain large tracts of protected forests” (Bhagwat and Rutte 2006: 520). However, these forests along with their sacred groves are c
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