Towards Sustainability: Stories from India
34
10
Sacred Spaces
Traditions that care for the environment
A festive mood is in the air. Young Khasi girls in bright yellow costumes and boys in
sparkling white, gently sway to the rhythmic beat of drums. A bard sings a song, and a
priest performs his rites. A flute plays in the background. An ancient tribal dance, the Shad
Nongran, and long forgotten customs, are being revived for the most unlikely of
reasonsafforestation. The future is being celebrated, a future with a green cover. It is an
effort by a band of activists to preserve the Law Kyntang, the 79 sacred groves dotting the
hilly north-eastern state of Meghalaya.
For centuries tradition ensured that no one set foot in
these oak and rhododendron patches. Not one leaf or
even a blade of grass was plucked for fear of angering
the presiding deities. Tales abounded about what
became of those who did. With the passage of time,
old beliefs gave way to new. These groves were no
longer considered sacred, and became targets of
exploitation.
It was relentless plunder. It was in the 1990s that a
group of local environmentalists decided to do
something about this situation. The significance of the
groves was not only
biological, but also
anthropological. In
1992 a young
Khasi
poet and folklorist, Desmond L.
Kharmawphlang, along with a German sculptor, Thomas
Kaiser, met the Syiem (Chief) of Khyrim, and decided to
regenerate the sacred groves. Many joined this movement
of restoring the lost glory of their forefathers. While
superstitions were not revived, long abandoned customs
were recalled in the effort to regenerate the groves. The
World Bank is also providing assistance in this effort.
Sacred groves are essentially small patches of native
vegetation traditionally protected by local communities.
The size of the grove may range from less than a hectare
to more than a few square kilometers. Often the species
conserved in the sacred groves are the ones that perform
key functions in the regions eco-system and contribute
in supporting and enhancing the biodiversity.
Sacred groves are found in several states of India. While
a study recorded 13,270 sacred groves in India, it
surmised that there may be thousands more. Each has its
Conserving the Sacred
Islands of Diversity
Reported number of
Sacred Groves in India
Andhra Pradesh
750
Arunachal Pradesh
58
Assam
40
Chhattisgarh
600
Gujarat
29
Haryana
248
Himachal Pradesh
5000
Jharkhand
21
Karnataka
1424
Kerala
2000
Maharashtra
1600
Manipur
365
Meghalaya
79
Orissa
322
Rajasthan
9
Sikkim
56
Tamil Nadu
448
Uttaranchal
1
West Bengal
670
Total
13,270