Faith can move mountains, but in Rajasthan, it helps grow forests. Even in the era of global warming and fast depleting green cover, faith continues to sustain the canopy of green over the desert state. Now the officials of forest department are in the process of documenting the sacred groves of the state to help restore and conserve them.
"According to conservative estimates, there are nearly 25,000 sacred groves and other sanctified ecosystems in the state. They vary from 0.1 hectre to 500 hectre and are commonly known as orans, deora or malvan and often protect watersheds and water source," said D N Pandey, conservator of forests, Jodhpur.
For centuries, socio-religious traditions and superstitions ensured that no one set foot on these rich patches of green. No one ever plucked a leaf, not even a blade of grass, in the mortal fear of angering the presiding deity. Legends abound of what became of those who did; of how tigers and snakes, the guardian spirits of the groves, extracted a price in terms of suffering and death.
Till some time back, people worshiped and conserved these groves. But decreasing religious faith of the younger generation, mining, quarries, encroachments and other factors are posing a serious threat to these groves.
"To list a few, a part of Ubeshwarji sacred grove was destroyed by submergence because of an anicut across the stream flowing through the grove. Then the grove at Thaneshwarji is threatened by mining and stone quarrying. The Malpur sacred grove in a private land holding was felled because of its valuable teak plantation," said Pandey.
In fact, environmentalists and dendrologist fear threat to these sacred groves due to the bio fuel policy that talks about transforming these groves into Jetropha plantations.
The destruction of village life and grazing lands to create fuel for automobiles of the rich will further erode rural livelihood and increase social tensions, feel NGOs working on sacred groves.
The civil society groups have criticised the government's bio-fuel policy and have said that it would amount to diversion of land from food crops to fuel and would ultimately endanger food security of millions. In Rajasthan, Jatropha plantation have been undertaken in Udaipur, Kota, Sikar, Bansara, Chittor and Churu districts. Besides, UK-based D1-BP Bio Fuels has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IL&FS Ecosmart for bio-diesel production in the state.
"Village community pastures are the common resources in the state, having a potential for equitable accessibility to all classes of the rural population. Rajasthan has 1.94 million hectare of common pasture lands and more than 70% of the total geographical area is common land. The Jatropha cultivation is severely limiting the ability of the commons to support rural livelihood comprehensively and thereby harming the ecological services they render," said Aman Singh of Kripavis, an NGO that work for protection of sacred groves.
Livestock is the major source of livelihood for the poor and they are heavily dependent on common pastures for grazing their cattle. Jatropha cultivation will severely affect the availability of fodder, feels Aman.
While former Union minister Jaswant Singh did show an avid interest in preservation of these groves in the state and also got funds from the government, little was done on ground. So far, only one programme has been launched for conservation of sacred groves in 1992 at the Aravalli Deovan, funded by the Japanese.
Here, besides protection of the groves, planting indigenous species, soil and water conservation and community participation in restoration were undertaken. As a result, the areas under the Japanese-assisted Aravalli Afforestation Programme in Banswara and Udaipur, could be saved from Jatropha that is grown across 600 hectare in the state.
The pilot projects, covering 300 hectare each, are run by the ministry of agriculture and Maharana Pratap Agriculture University, Udaipur.
"Traditional resource management practices can provide a clue to the modern scientific forestry and participatory forestry. It will help in management, regeneration, conservation and sustainable use of forest resources. Success gained at the programme in Udaipur should be replicated elsewhere," feels Pandey.
JATROPHA PLANTATION, A THREAT
The state is witnessing largescale destruction of village lands and grazing lands (referred to as 'wastelands' in colonial revenue records) due to Jatropha cultivation. On May 7, 2007, the government of Rajasthan passed an order under Section 261 of the Land Revenue Act of 1956 to create a new law called "The Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of wasteland for biofuel plantation and biofuel-based industrial and processing unit) Rules, 2007." The law allows 1,000 hectare to 5,000 hectre of village common lands to be transferred from the village community to biofuel industry for 20 years. The land allocation is for biofuel plantation, especially Jatropha and biofuel-based industry and processing units.
STATE'S LARGEST GROVES
'Karneshwar Sacred,' located on the outskirts of Kota, where the presiding diety is Dardevi Mata, the family goddess of the erstwhile royal family of Kota, is one of the finest examples of a grove located alongside a stream. It supports 53 species of birds and several other species of animals. It has a water reservoir that has several species of fish, water birds and waders
Temple forest like the one at Galtaji in Jaipur by virtue of their size and visible location are comparatively more studied than other forms of traditional forests management
Nathji temple in Rajasthan has one of the largest groves owned by a temple trust.