Sacred Groves in India

Woman at water well

This article on sacred groves from Scientific American, Dec 2018, demonstrates the wisdom of indigenous people who held a different relationship with their natural environment ... humans as an extension of the natural world, integrated and unified. Not us, that. They also had a sense of the commons and the sacred. Very similar to Native Americans and, I think, fengshui forests in China.

A legacy of prehistoric traditions of nature conservation, sacred groves are patches of forest that rural communities in the developing world protect and revere as sacrosanct. Deeply held spiritual beliefs ensure that not a tree is felled nor a creature harmed within its boundaries. 

Originally widespread in the Old World, sacred groves were reported in Greek and Sanskrit classics but were essentially wiped out in Europe by the arrival of Christianity and its attendant anthropocentrism. The Christian church, with its towering pillars and soft light filtering in through colorful stained-glass win- dows, is said to evoke the sacred groves of yore. Such protected copses are still found in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

An ecological crisis in the Indian subcontinent, brought about by relentless commercial exploitation of natural resourc- es, is prompting a vibrant revival of these sacred spaces. 

In many cases, the locals had nurtured the forest and protected its biodi- versity in ways that became clear only in hindsight

he resulting data clearly showed that people perceived and valued the ecosystem services that the sacred groves o ered and were continuing to protect them because they wished to avail themselves of these benefits. At the same time the groves protect- ed water sources, they served as refugia for animals exploited out- side the sacred groves. 

THE PEOPLE OF MENDHA and the Jenu Kurubas believe that they are part of a community of beings, comprising not only humans but also mountains, rivers, trees, animals and birds. These nonhuman community members benefit them in many ways; hence, humans must reciprocate through restrained use, even veneration and total protection. Such a feeling must have prevailed in all early cul- tures, such as those of hunter-gatherers, who live by it to this 
day.

Along with settled agriculture came the first city-states. The Indus Valley civilization gave way around 3,500 years ago to Vedic kingdoms. According to an interpretation of the epic Mahabharata by anthropologist Irawati Karve, these early states expanded their frontiers across the Gangetic basin by burning forests to evict hunter-gatherers and to create more fields for pasture and taxation. With cultivation extending across the plains, a resource crunch showed up. The evidence, albeit patchy, suggests that soil fertility and possibly rainfall declined, where- as leaf manure, fruit trees, wild game and other forest resources became scarce. Studies by historian Romila Thapar indicate that 
Jainism and Buddhism, religions that preached vegetarianism or other forms of restraint in consumption, arose at this time— in direct response to the ecological crisis. These faiths bolstered the local tradition of protected groves. Gautama Buddha himself was born in the sacred grove of Lumbini about 2,600 years ago. Sufi Islam, which spread across the Indian subcontinent in the 10th century, also supported these conservation practices.

The conquest of India by the East India Company, which be- gan in 1757, almost wiped out these millennia of ecological adap- tation. Early British travelers described India as an ocean of trees, but the company proceeded to rapidly “enclose the commons.” Fields, streams, ponds and other resources were seized from vil- lagers and became state property, many being handed over to English-style landlords who agreed to pay exorbitant taxes ex- torted from the (now landless) laborers and sharecroppers. The landlords expunged most sacred groves on their holdings to expand fields. Subsequently the state appropriated virtually all forests with the claim of managing them in an enlightened sci- entific fashion. Community control and accompanying conser- vation measures were declared to be thoroughly illegitimate.

“Who owns this forest? Not the government, nor any of us. The real owners are not yet born. We are merely custodians.”
—Dukku Chamaru Tofa

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sacred-groves-an-ancient-tradition-of-nature-conservation/
and on fengshui forests studied by son Steven's college advisor: https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/9935-China-s-fengshui-forests