BASELIOS MARTHOMA MATHEWS II

TRAINING COLLEGE, KOTTARAKKARA

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT ON
SACRED GROVES

Submitted To
Santhi Teacher

Submitted By
Veena. T. Pillai
Natural

Science

INDEX
Sl.
No.

CONTENT

PAGE No.

1.

INTRODUCTION

01

2.

CONTENT

02 06

3.

CONCLUSION

07 09

4.

REFERENCE

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INTRODUCTION
A Sacred grove or sacred woods are any grove of
trees of special religious importance to a
particular importance to a particular culture.
Sacred groves feature in various culture
throughout the world. Sacred groves are seen in
India and also in Kerala. The forest usage like
honey collection and deadwood collection are
sometimes allowed on a sustainable basis. Indian
sacred groves are sometimes associated with
temples /monasteries / shrines or with burial
grounds. Sacred groves may be loosely used to
refer to other natural habitat protected on
religious grounds, such as Alpine Meadows.
According to the studies there are 691 groves in
Andhra Pradesh, 1424 in Karnataka, Kerala has
2000 sacred groves locally known as Kavu,
Sarpa Kavu. There are many uses for sacred
groves. A detailed study is included in this
assignment sacred groves.

CONTENT
Sacred groves of India are forest
fragments of varying sizes, which are
communally protected and which usually have a
significant religious connotation for the
protecting community. Hunting and logging are
usually strictly prohibited within these patches.
In India, sacred groves are scattered all
over the country and do enjoy protection. Prior
to 2002 these forest regions were not recognized
under any of the existing laws. But in 2002 an
amendment was brought in wildlife protection
act, 1972 to include sacred groves under the act.
Some NGOs work with local villagers to protect
such groves. While most of these sacred deities
are with local Hindu Gods, sacred groves of
Islamic and Buddhist origins are also known.
India has a long tradition of prudent use
and wise conservation of all resources that are
useful to people. A traditional means of

biodiversity conservation, these groves, can be

considered the
ancient equivalent of natural sanctuaries where
all forms of living creatures are given protection
by a deity. Ancient Indian texts have many
references to sacred groves, for example
Kalidaasas Vikramorvawsiyam.
Today, there are only about 1000 square
kilometres of undisturbed sacred groves,
scattered in patches all over the country. Only
the groves in the remote and inaccessible area
remain untouched. The decline of sacred groves
can be attributed to the change in social values
and religious beliefs as a result of modernization
and urbanization.
Sacred groves vary in the size from few
trees to dense forests covering vast tracts of land.
Sacred groves occur in variety of places- from
scrub forests in the Thar desert of Rajasthan
maintained by the Bishnois to rain forests in the
Kerala Western Ghats, Himachal Pradesh in the

north and Kerala in south are specifically known

for their large number of sacred groves. The
Kodavas of Karnataka maintained over 1000
sacred groves in Kodagu alone. Kerala has about
240 sacred groves, known as Kavus, where more
than 3000 rare species of plants are fond. The
largest grove, spread over more than 20 hectares
is in Ernakulum District.
In Kerala, it was the common practice
among Hindus to assign a part of their land near
the Tharavadu or house as the adobe of goddessDurga or Serpent God Nagar or Shasta and the
place is called Kavu or Sarpakavu. Sacred Grove
represents the major effort to recognize and
conserve biodiversity traditionally. The age old
system of every village having a temple, a tank
and associated grove explains the ancient
method of water harvesting and sharing and may
considered as the backbone of village economy.
Some of the trees such as Borassus, Alstonia
scholaris, Antiaris toxicaria, Hopea parviflora,

Strychnos nux-vomica, Ficus religiosa etc are

being worshipped in many sacred groves.
On rough estimate Kerala has about 1500
sacred groves which are distinct and unique in
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biological diversity. Most of the sacred groves

represent the relics of one gregarious and
abundant low lying evergreen forest of the
Western Ghats. The vegetation in the
undistributed groves is luxuriant and with multi
layered trees mixed with shrubs are represented
by Ixora nigricans, Chassalia curviflora etc. The
seasonal plants such as Centella asiatica, Aerva
lanata, Biophytum sensitivum form the
vegetation.
As the demand for land is always high in
Kerala, the shrinkage of grove was one of the
inevitable causes. Encroachment has resulted in
the shrinkage of some of the largest kavu in
Ernakulam and Kannur districts. In some cases
the old trees in the kavu may be uprooted by
natural calamities and this will be taken a reason

for reducing the area of kavu in certain cases.

Cutting of trees for temple and associated
purpose had also been reported from some areas.
Since the locations of these virgin ecosystems
are in the middle of the people, cattle grazing,
collection of dry leaves, firewood is a common
phenomenon in Kerala.

In fact the area varies from one cent as in

some Nagaru kavus to more than 20 hectares in
Irigole kavu, Kunnathurpadi kavu, Payyannur
and Theyyottu kavu, Kannur district are two
other large kavus in Kerala. Protection of the
environment and life supporting systems are
inter woven with conservation of biological
diversity. Sacred groves represent this all
embracing concept and practice of ancient Indian
way of in-situ conservation of genetic diversity.
Preserve the rare species found in sacred groves
in seed banks of various institutions or develop
embryo/tissue culture of these rare species. The
diamonds of Kerala are these sacred groves, so
preserve it.

CONCLUSION
Preservation of sacred groves is an
important necessity in this era of dwindling
forest cover; but the problem is difficult to
tackle, as the number of sacred groves is many
and the agencies in charge of them are diverse.
Hence a common approach in all cases may not
be feasible. However following are some
suggestions to save the relics from total
extinction.
1) Take an inventory of all the sacred groves of
Kerala. Department of Science and Technology,
Government of Kerala can take the initiative and
fund a project taking of course the assistance of
the Willing institutions, coming under its care.
2) Government may encourage the owners who
are willing to conserve their groves by giving
them incentives in the form of maintenance
grants or awards.

3) Create awareness in the public about the

importance of these groves and the necessity for
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their preservation through mass media like All

India Radio and Doordarshan.
4) Enforce total ban on felling of trees and
poaching of birds and animals in sacred groves.
5) Preserve the rare species found in sacred
groves in seed banks of various institutions or
develop embryo/tissue culture of these rare
species and make then available in enormous
numbers so that they are no more endangered.
Government may create a Cell for
conservation of sacred groves on par with
Western Ghats Development Cell with the
assistance of different funding agencies of
Government of India like the Department of
Science and Technology, Department of
Environment and Forests, Man and Biosphere,
Department of Biotechnology etc.

In Kerala a love for nature even among

people living in village and urban conditions is
evident from the practice of preserving very
small areas with all the natural plants and other
animal
8

undisturbed. Such natural units are preserved as

part of the temple environment through out
Kerala and they are called sacred groves. Some
of the sacred groves extent to 35 ha.
These sacred groves exhibit typical forest
conditions and they are remnants of the natural
forest once existed in those areas.

REFERENCE
Malhotra, K. C Ghokhale, Y. Chatterjee,
Cultural and Ecological dimensions of sacred
groves in India, New Delhi, 2001.
http://sacred groves in India and Kerala.
www.forest.kerala.gov.in.

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