Within the Banagudi, the Sacred Grove we visited in the Nilgiris. “Bana” means forest and “gudi” means temple. This forest has been cared for by the Kurumba and Badaga tribes for almost 700 years.
The reading for this week, Sacred Gardens and Landscapes, was a book review. I did not anticipate this, and while the review gave a good overall feel for the book itself, I am working to have a copy of some relevant chapters sent to me.
To supplement, I have watched a documentary titled Appiko, on the movement began here in the Western Ghats. The movement was inspired by the Chipko movement, which began in the Himalayas by a few women who spontaneously hugged the trees to save them from felling. Chipko means embrace in the local language. The act was inspired by the instinct a woman has to sacrifice herself for her child by hugging the babe close to her breast so that whatever threat, such as a tiger, would kill her instead of her child. The movement gained natural recognition and in 1981, the prime minister banned felling of trees above 1000 meters. In 1983, the state government of Karnataka was planning to clear-cut a large section of the forest including many sacred groves around Sirsi, the town that I work in everyday, and am writing this blog post from. They planned to replace the forest with a monoculture teak plantation. The men who spoke about what this would meant to their community said such things as “everything we need comes from the forest” and “if we apply our axes to the forest, we are applying our axes to our culture.” The culture here is so largely defined by their landscape, and the community felt their own livelihood threatened by the idea of cutting down their forest. We were lucky enough to sit down with one of the leaders of the Appiko movement, Pondurang Hegde, last week during a three hour car ride out of the Nilgiris and into Mysore, and I am looking forward to interviewing him in the next month about his role in the movement and the importance of the sacred groves to the people here.
The second reading, Aspiring Resurgence- A Case Study of the Sacred Grove of Ajeevali, tied in well to the Appiko movement, because it spoke specifically about the relationship between the community and the sacred grove in five various, but interconnected, ways: religiously, socio-culturally, economically, ecologically, and politically. The grove is used as a worship space, but it also provides many essential non-timber forest products used during ceremonies. They also make Maadi, a fermented local drink from the sap of the Caryota Palm, which is an extremely lucrative endeavor. So much so that a political committee, the Temple Trust, auctions off the grove every year for the extraction of Maadi. The highest bidder also attains the responsibility as the sole protector of the grove. The revenue from the auction is used for village welfare and religious activities, but also, the extraction of Maadi is good for the economy, creating jobs, income, and a product specific to this area. The agricultural community is largely dependent on the grove for clean water. The fishing community is largely dependent on the fish, who can only live in such clean water, during the 2-4 month monsoon season. Thirteen species have been recorded as edible supplementary food, and birds and frogs play a large role in pest control on farms. Ajeevali was an excellent case study, for the understanding the specific cultural role a sacred grove can play in a community. The authors even went further by recommending to the community that they conserve the land use pattern that surrounds the grove, as it is just as important in the security of the grove, as protecting the grove itself.
Sources:
1) Mahabaleshwarkar, Supriya Goturkar, and Mukul Mahabaleshwarkar. “Aspiring for Resurgence- A Case Study of the Sacred Grove of Ajeevali.” Methods & Approaches 4.1 (2007): 31-40. Print.
2) Appiko. Dir. Neil Pike. Rainforest Information Centre, 2007. DVD.