Forest and Wildlife Resources - Conservation of Nature

Sacred groves - a wealth of diverse and rare forests. The programme has been in formal species existence since 1988 when the state of Nature worship is an age old tribal belief based on Odisha passed the first resolution for j...

Sacred groves - a wealth of diverse and rare forests. The programme has been in formal species existence since 1988 when the state of Nature worship is an age old tribal belief based on Odisha passed the first resolution for joint the premise that all creations of nature have to be forest management. JFM depends on the protected. Such beliefs have preserved several virgin formation of local (village) institutions that forests in pristine form called Sacred Groves (the undertake protection activities mostly on forests of God and Goddesses). These patches of degraded forest land managed by the forest forest or parts of large forests have been left department. In return, the members of untouched by the local people and any interference these communities are entitled to with them is banned. intermediary benefits like non-timber Certain societies revere a particular tree which forest produces and share in the timber they have preserved from time immemorial. The harvested by ‘successful protection’. Mundas and the Santhal of Chota Nagpur region The clear lesson from the dynamics of worship mahua (Bassia latifolia) and kadamba both environmental destruction and (Anthocaphalus cadamba) trees, and the tribals of reconstruction in India is that local Odisha and Bihar worship the tamarind (Tamarindus communities everywhere have to be indica) and mango (Mangifera indica) trees during involved in some kind of natural resource weddings. To many of us, peepal and banyan trees management. But there is still a long way are considered sacred. to go before local communities are at the Indian society comprises several cultures, each centre-stage in decision-making. Accept with its own set of traditional methods of conserving only those economic or developmental nature and its creations. Sacred qualities are often activities, that are people centric, ascribed to springs, mountain peaks, plants and environment-friendly and economically animals which are closely protected. You will find rewarding. troops of macaques and langurs around many temples. They are fed daily and treated as a part of temple devotees. In and around Bishnoi villages in Write a short essay on any practices Rajasthan, herds of blackbuck, (chinkara), nilgai and which you may have observed and peacocks can be seen as an integral part of the practised in your everyday lives that community and nobody harms them. conserve and protect the environment around you. “The tree is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence and makes no demand for its sustenance, and extends generously the products of its life activity. It affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axemen who destroy it”. Gautama Buddha (487 B.C.) FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES 17 Reprint 2024-25