Saturday, October 1, 2016

Uttarakhand biodiversity board selects 13 sacred groves for eco-tourism

DEHRADUN: Local residents have dedicated around 400 sacred groves to their deities and hence have shunned tree felling or any other exploitation of natural resources which help in conservation of biodiversity. The Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) has selected 13 sacred groves for eco-tourism, out of which four are underway for approval from the state’s forest department.

Here the villagers will be trained to start eco-tourism activity. These four forests include Tadkeshwar in Pauri Garhwal, Saim Mukhim in Tehri, Dhurka Devi in Almora and Thal Kedar in Pithoragarh.

Chairman of UBB, Rakesh Shah said, “The sacred groves will be managed by a committee which will be provided finances to be used judiciously for maintenance of forests. A Biodiversity Management Committee will be formed and trained for marketing of non-timbre forest products and eco-tourism activities. ”

Many such forests also happen to have some rare and endangered flora and fauna species. Thal Kedar will become the first sacred grove of the state. It is spread over 1315 hectare and is eight kilometre from Pithoragarh in Kumaon. There are 200 species of medicinal plants and 663 other species of plants.

S S Rasailey, member secretary of the board said, “Villagers visit Thal Kedar on Shivratrti and Kartik Purnimas as pilgrimage. A week prior to the pilgrimage, villagers forsake meat, liquor, onion and garlic. Any infringement would debar the person.”


Women and people belonging to scheduled castes are barred from entering the sacred groves. The villagers believe that any breach in these rules will bring repercussions such as crop failure, disease outbreak etc and whenever these taboos are transgressed, they hold a penance ceremony to appease the deities.

Also, no NGOs will be approached for this project as the villagers are mostly apprehensive about outside interference in their sacred groves.

TOI

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