ENIGMA OF SACRED GROVES

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fter an arduous back-bone breaking journey I reached the sleepy village of Magnal. Cut off from the screaming so called developed areas of Sirmour District, Magnal is located in a remote area of Shillai Forest Range. Serenity and tranquility are the two words that define Magnal appropriately. Purpose of my journey was to study the floristics of this primitive sacred grove by the village side. Very view of the half-a-hectare sacred grove standing majestic amidst the wheat fields enthralled my senses. The cross section looked like a dark green dome placed over a light green carpet of young wheat crop in the back drop of huge but barren mountains. 

Magnal Sacred Grove

Accompanied by village elders, the moment I stepped into the grove, I knew that I was in a sacred tiny world intricately woven in a fabric of culture, traditions and ecology. The huge oak trees (Quercus leucotrichophora) stood majestically spreading their boughs over adjacent wheat fields. The younger trees looked confident deriving some kind of divine protection from the huge and old generation of oaks. Herbs and shrubs, many of them having medicinal properties, were evenly spread across floor of the grove. “How old these huge oak trees could be?” I asked one of the elders with me. “We don’t know how many human generations these majestic trees have witnessed here! This grove has been worshipped and protected by our ancestors since time immemorial” replied an old man with a piously feeble voice. Right in the centre of grove stood a small concrete temple of the presiding deity Shirgul Maharaj. The entire sacred grove is an abode of the deity and any human interference is not allowed in it. The faith is so strong that the villagers give up cultivation wherever new seedlings from trees of the grove germinate on peripheral agricultural land around the grove. Not even a twig or dry leaf is removed from the grove by the villagers.

I was here to quantify some of the enigmas intertwined in the sacred grove. I quickly laid out my sample plots to study the structure and composition of vegetation and recorded all my observations in the little pocket diary. Later on after analyzing the field data, the density of trees in Magnal sacred grove stood at 1030 stems per hectare! So dense that even sunlight would diminish while it reached the ground! The Simpson’s diversity index was calculated to be 0.66. These figures outshine even those of the best protected Government owned forests! 

Bhrari Sacred Grove

There are four other such magnificent scared groves in Renuka Forest Division that have been protected by people owing to socio-religious beliefs and practices. Each of these groves represents an amalgamation of traditions and culture with ecological entity. I wonder whether mysteries of nature inspired the tradition of sacred groves or whether it was the tradition that inspired people to protect such green dots in a degrading landscape. Either way, the tiny natural sacred groves stand majestically projecting out on parched landscapes so much degraded by human greed. On my way back to the head quarters, I wonder what could be the best management intervention to save these small patches of divine green……and I realize……just leave them alone. The culture and traditions will take care of these groves better than any management plan!