Somnath Ghosal
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
R – 1, B.P. Township, Kolkata -700 094, India

There are thousands of tribal forest villages found within and at the vicinity of the deciduous forest covers in India. In the north-eastern extended part of the Chhotanagpur plateau area of India, tribal communities are living based on forest products harvesting for centuries. Socio-cultural practices of these communities are very much configured with the surrounding forests, hilly tracks, rivers and unfertile-undulating physiography. It is because of the dry-unfertile terrain, tribal forest dwellers mostly depend on forest products harvesting to manage their daily livelihoods. To protect the original forest ecology including its flora and fauna, a number of forest pockets are considered as sacred zones, from where collection of forest products for daily household needs or for commercial purposes are strictly prohibited. Therefore, these areas are quite undisturbed and a rich number of floral and faunal species are available in these sacred areas which may not be found in adjacent forest areas today.

Only for the production of medicines, villagers occasionally collect some plant or animal species according to village Vaidya’s (tribal traditional doctor) instructions from these sacred zones. Villagers believe that the Goddess of forest bestowed her blessings on these plant species as these species are from sacred places. This research shows that the number of plant and animal species is always higher in sacred places compared to its adjacent forest areas. Therefore, research on these sacred places may explore the number of plant and animal species what might be available in the past in surrounding forest areas too. Research findings will also be useful to discover the nature and features of ancient biodiversity of the surrounding forest covers.

These sacred groves are protected just by the religious faith, believes and practices of tribal forest dwellers, even during the utmost pressure of forest degradation. Study of sacred places shows how and why some plant species were received more priority by the indigenous forest dwellers compared to other species and, at the same time, why associate species, which may not have direct use in tribal communities, are important for the protection of native biodiversity can be revealed. Traditional forest related knowledge of tribal communities that have developed through century old socio-cultural practices in India can be disclosed better through the study of these sacred groves.