A Socio-Ecological Study of Sacred Groves and Memorial Parks: Cases from USA and India

The concept of sacred and nature have long been interlinked. Various cultural aspects such as religion, faith, traditions bring people closer to nature and the natural environment. Memorial Parks and Sacred Groves are examples of two such cultural landscapes that exist today. The project mainly deals with the significance of such sites to the environment and the deep rooted significance it has to the people. These parks and groves play an important role in biodiversity conservation and environmental protection. There are many differences between the establishment of memorial parks and sacred groves, but the underlying significance is the same. Sentiments, emotions play an important role in landscape planning and management. Hence the people and communities living at these sites need to be involved in any planning activity or decisions. The conservation of the environment should appeal to the sentiments of the people; the need to be 'with nature' should be used in the setting up of memorial forests and in the preservation of sacred groves.

Authors:

• Ishani Pruthi
• William Burch Jr

Keywords:

• Sacred groves
• memorial forests
• community based natural resource management.

References:

[1] Beyond Belief: Linking faiths and protected areas to support biodiversity
conservation WWF Report 2005
[2] Gadgil, M., 1985. Social restraints on resource utilization: The Indian
experience.Culture and Conservation: The Human Dimension in
Environmental Planning. Croom Helm, Dublin.
[3] Pandey, D.N., 1998. Ethnoforestry: Local Knowledge for Sustainable
Forestry and Livelihood Security. Asia Forest Network & Himanshu,
Berkeley, New Delhi and Udaipur.
[4] Chandran, S., Gadgil, M., 1998. Sacred groves and sacred trees of Uttara
Kannada. Lifestyle and Ecology. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the
Arts and D.K. Printworld, Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
[5] Ramakrishnan P .S. Conserving the sacred for biodiversity: the
conception framework, Proceedings of KFRI Workshop. 1997.
[6] Chandrakanth, M.G., Romm, J., 1991. Sacred forests, secular forest
policies and people's actions. Natural Resources Journal, 31(4): 741-
756.
[7] Chandrakanth, M.G., Bhat, M.G, & Accavva M.S 2004. Socio-economic
changes and sacred groves in south India: Protecting a community based
resource management institution. Natural Resources Forum 28 (2): 102-
111
[8] Singh, N. A Study of Human Impact on Sacred Groves in India. Thesis
at the Center for International Studies f Ohio University, 2006
[9] Godbole, A 1998. Role of sacred groves in biodiversity conservation
with local people-s participation: A case study from Ratnagiri district,
Maharashtra. Conserving the sacred: For biodiversity management (pp
233-246). New Hampshire: Science Publishers.
[10] Nagaraj, M.G. 1998, Kembatti Holeyara Samskrithi, Karnataka Sahithya
Academy, Bangalore, India.
[11] NM Nadkarni, GG Parker, HB Rinker, DM Jarzen - Forest Canopies,
2004 - Academic Press.