Supreme Court bats for preservation of India’s ‘sacred groves’

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday recommended the Centre to create a comprehensive policy for governance and management of community-protected forests, known as sacred groves.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai, S V N Bhatti and Sandeep Mehta, said India was home to thousands of sacred groves, which were patches of forests or clusters of trees that held deep cultural or spiritual significance for the local communities that protected and sustained them.

“The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is recommended to create a comprehensive policy for the governance and management of sacred groves across the country,” the bench said. The judgment quoted a Bhagwat Gita verse, as saying, “Nature is the source of all material things: the maker, the means of mak-ing, and the things made. Spirit is the source of all con-sciousness which feels pleasure and feels pain”.

Highlighting the ecological and cultural importance of the sacred groves, the top court recommended their protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, particularly through Section 36-C, which allows for declaration of “community reserves”. The top court delivered its verdict on a plea rais-ing concerns over the sacred groves in Rajasthan. The apex court directed the forest department of Rajasthan to carry out detailed on-ground and satellite mapping of each sacred grove in the respective area and classify them as “forests”, as recommended in the central empowered committee’s report of June 1, 2005.

It also directed the state to complete the survey and notifi-cation of sacred groves/Orans in all districts. It noted that as part of this policy, the MoEFCC must also develop a plan for a nationwide survey of sacred groves, by whatever name they were identified with in each state. “This survey should identify their area, location, and extent, and clearly mark their boundaries. These boundaries should remain flexible to accommodate the natural growth and expansion of these forests while ensuring strict protection against any reduction in size due to agricultural activities, human habi-tation, deforestation, or other causes,” the bench said.

The apex court said it was necessary to propose certain suggestions to promote the sustainable conservation of the sacred groves and empower the communities associated with their protection. The Rajasthan government was there-fore directed to identify traditional communities that have historically protected the sacred groves and designate these areas as “community forest resource” under Section 2(a) of the Forest Rights Act. “These communities have shown a strong cultural and ecological commitment to con-servation, and their role as custodians should be formally recognised,” the bench said.

Referring to the “Piplantri model” created in a village in Ra-jasthan’s Rajsamand district, the bench said it showed how environmental protection, gender equality, and economic growth could work together to change communities. The tragic passing of a girl child of the sarpanch prompted the movement in the village which had until then witnessed en-vironmental damages due to excessive marble mining. The mining activity led to acute water shortages, deforestation and economic decline.