Environmental purification through revival of Sacred Groves: an approach within religion practices

Abstract

The present author believes that most of the religious activities of the world have a deep sense of understanding nature and society that leads to environmental faith and dependency. It is thus the author‟s apprehension that if this religious aspect is used up for environmental purification then the burden upon the several conservation organizations would be relaxed. Revival of sacred groves is one such a measure. Sacred groves are micro-spatial units where devotees of a particular religion come for retaining their mental sanctity. This region where the flora and fauna is kept untouched and where humans believe in nature‟s co-existence could be used as an effective conservation technique. India is painted with a huge clumps of such sacred groves scattered all throughout. The author has confined his study within the state of West Bengal in India and through his observation more than thousands of such sacred groves in the particular state have a spatial variation in response to physical setup and anthropogenic aspect. The objective is to outline some measures through which the sacred grove units which are scattered all over a particular region could be represented as a mosaic to be carried out as an outreach programme for conservation purpose A very significant finding is that with the progress of urbanization such ethnic units are losing their identity and their sacred notions likewise. It is observed that there has been a temporal deviation from the original philosophy of this micro-biodiversity unit of flora and fauna and hence an identity crisis.