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Existing status of Chilkigarh Sacred Grove in Midnapore, West Bengal

Article · January 2015

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 Existing status of Chilkigarh Sacred Grove in Midnapore, West Bengal
S. Kar 1, S. Pathak 2* and P. Singh 3
Right through the history of Protected Areas the
common thread is the focus on providing for life now
and into the future (Lopoukhine, 2008). Since
ancient to the recent epoch conservation of nature
harbouring the natural resources has played a vital
phase in the lives of various aboriginal communities
dispersed all over the world. Indigenous knowledge
of local plants, animals, their habitat preferences,
distribution, life histories and demographic features,
is socially transmitted from one individual to another
within and across generations (Gadgil et al. 1998).
Adoration of nature and its worship has been a key
force in formatting human viewpoint towards
environmental and ecological conservation.
Traditional maintenance ethics of these people
steadfastly or circuitously protected forest patches by
dedicating them to local deities or connecting the
land part to some local histories. Consequently, such
forest areas form the sacred groves. These are
relatively small to large portions of customarily and
conventionally secluded, nearly virgin forests
managed by the local people’s participation and
conserved by mans spiritual beliefs, faith and
habitual rituals that jog through several generations
(Malhotra, et al., 2001). These are imperative
repositories of unscathed floral and faunal diversity
conserved by a sustainable approach. Indigenous
cultural practices and folk beliefs that have distinct
conservation consequences have been tagged as
ethnoforestry (Pandey, 1998).
Indian sacred groves have pre-vedic origin which are
associated with indigenous or tribal communities who
mostly believe in divinity of nature and natural
resources, therefore distinctly different from icon
oriented main stream religions. Grove biodiversity is
often highlighted because of the prevalence of
endemic and rare threatened members in grove biota
(Sukumaran and Raj, 2007). According to Gadgil et
al., (1998) the scientific study of sacred groves and
sacred trees of India was initiated by Gadgil and
Vartak starting from 1975 up to 1981; later Gadgil
himself pioneered the view that sacred groves and
sacred trees belong to a variety of cultural practices
which helped Indian society to maintain an
ecologically steady state with wild living resources.
In India, there are about 13,720 sacred groves. The
maximum numbers of sacred groves are enumerated
from Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala,
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It is
worth mentioning that the Kodavas of Karnataka
maintained over 1000 sacred groves in Kodagu alone
(Bhaskar et al. 2000; Malhotra et al. 2001). In
Karnataka and Kerala, groves are supposed to
provide nutrient rich water to the adjacent
ZOO’s PRINT, Volume XXX, Number 4 April 2015
agricultural fields and spice gardens (Induchoodan,
1996). In North Eastern India, the sacred groves are
found in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur and Sikkim (Dash, 2005). In West Bengal
the sacred groves are typically found in the south
western districts, where the tribal population is major
and industrial expansion has not yet expanded
adequately to obliterate indigenous cultural traditions
(Deb and Malhotra, 2007). Over 670 sacred grooves
are reported from Bankura, Birbhum, Midnapur,
Purulia and Jalpaiguri districts (Deb et al., 1997),
which are generally less than an acre and are not
worn for harvest of any biomass. Bamboo groves are
mostly found in Jalpaiguri and Coochbihar districts.
The present study deals with the Chilkigarh sacred
grove (latitude 22°15' – 22°0' N and longitude 86°45'
– 87°0' E) popularly known as Chilkigarh (named
after its adjacent village on the western side), is
situated in the Jamboni police station, 12 km from
Jhargram of West Midnapore district in West Bengal.
It occupies 58 acres and composed of relict forest
patch in its near-climax stage along the east
catchment zone of the Dulung river. The landmass is
considered sacred as it harbours the historically
eminent temple of Kanak Durga (the golden deity)
and the Raj Palace. The whole area is maintained
and managed by the temple trust. This sacred forest
is known to exist long before the Nawab (King)
period of Bengal and is said that the Bargees (the
raiders) used to take refuge inside the dense forest
during the day-time, thus concealing themselves in
ambush to strike after nightfall. According to
historical evidences during the days of yore, the
forest belonged to the royal family of Dhalbhum
estate of the Junglemahal province. The king kept
the forest intact for defense purpose. The thick
green cover acted as a shield against enemy invasion
to the Chilkigarh village-based palace. It is reported
that there is no taboo whatsoever associated with the
sacred grove or its flora, although the forest harbours
a large number of socio-religious species, in jagged
contrast with the caste-based other sacred groves of
Kora and Santal tribes of the same village. In view of
the fact that the sacred grove is maintained by the
majority Hindu society, social order and doctrine do
not play any part. During the annual Durga Puja
Festival, people from every hue throng the sacred
premises, offering pujas and seeking blessings of the
presiding deity. People’s perception about the grove
is that it helps people socialize and fostering
1,2,3
Botanical Survey of India, CGO- Complex, Salt lake
City, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
*
spathak.bsi@gmail.com (corresponding author)
15
 solidarity among them. It is an example of local
ownership and autonomy. The sacred grove serves as
a rallying point when local people need community
help and solidarity (Bhakat et al., 2007).
Floristic surveys of this region done by (Kamilya &
Paria, 1994) revealed a total of 388 species of
angiosperms covering 295 genera belonging to 89
families. Assemblage of deciduous, semideciduous
and evergreen species makes the vegetation a
diverse type with several co-dominant species. The
assortment of the vegetation as well as flora of the
grove is enriched by a number of climbers, woody
climbers, parasites, epiphytes, ground orchids and
some rare cryptogams like Helminthostachys,
Ophioglossum and Selaginella. Furthermore, the
grove houses 105 species of medicinal plants which
account nearly 36% of the total 288 medicinal plants
of the undivided Midnapore district. The forest
seems to be the last shelter of once plentiful but
currently vanishing medicinal species like Crataeva
nurvala, Gymnema sylvestre, Holarrhena
antidysenterica, Rauvolfia serpentina, R. tetraphylla,
Strychnos nux-vomica and Tylophora asthmatica.
Current Threats
Presently, the grove is under assorted stresses which
are primarily human induced. These include
fragmentation, reduction in area, degradation, alien
species invasion, over grazing, extraction of resource.
Moreover, changes in communal structure, resource
administration also affect simultaneously.
Fragmentation is one of the chief factors causing
isolation of the grove areas. Furthermore, it stalked
from population pressure, biomass and agricultural
requirement. Over exposure of the interior of the
grove resulted in the utilization of the resources
hidden in the core areas. Dry deciduous and light
loving members invade different areas, thus changing
the floral composition along with the microclimate to
a great extent. These modified facilitate
establishment of the invasive species within the
grove area and leaving the endemic members on the
threshold of extermination. Area shrinkage and
transformation in microclimate affect the faunal
members, as large to medium sized animals cannot
stay in a small fragment, thus smaller ones which can
accommodate face shortage of food, resources,
shelter, which eventually putting constraints on the
customary cycle of existence. Modification in the
social constitution plays a vital function in plodding
declination of grove system. These nature centric
worship places in many areas have already been
replaced by temples or by solid structures in the
name of modernization. Once the deity has been
shifted to the temple, the adjacent places become
irrelevant to the people, hence instantly occupied for
other usage. Consequently, the restricted shelter for
ZOO’s PRINT, Volume XXX, Number 4 April 2015
flora and fauna including the bionetwork performance
has been completely vanished. Again, with the loss
of maintenance of the grove, the condition becomes
vulnerable and susceptible due to various factors that
affects regeneration, nutrient cycling and moisture
preservation, infringement for some other purposes.
Conclusion
Groves are perchance the initial democratic approach
by the rustic people to defend the nature from over
exploitation. The tradition again revoked interest
today though with inclusively different perspectives.
The present need is to make people aware
concerning its importance, involve people in its
conservation and management and exploring its
potential in livelihood improvement.
References
Bhakat, R.K. (2007). People’s Initiative Revives a
Sacred Grove, www.ecoinsee.org.
Bhaskar, V., D. Nandini, H.B. Shivaprakash and
M. Anjappa (2000). Tree Diversity and
Regeneration Status in Devarakadu Sacred Groves of
Kodagu District, Karnataka. My Forest, 36(2): 105 –
120.
Dash, S.S. (2005). Kavi Sacred Grove of North
Sikkim. Current Science, 89(3):427 – 428.
Deb, D. and K.C. Malhotra (1970).
Interface between biodiversity and tribal cultural
heritage: a preliminary study, Journal of Human
Ecology, 8:157 – 163.
Deb, D. (2007). Sacred Grove of West Bengal: A
Model of Community Forest Management, 1 – 45,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6281522/Sacred-
Groves-of-West-Bengal.
Gadgil, M., B. Saraswati, R.S. Negi and M.D.S.
Chandran (1998). Lifestyle and Ecology eds
Baidyanath Saraswati. New Delhi.
Induchoodan, N.C. (1996). Ecological Studies on
the Sacred Groves of Kerala. (Ph.D. Thesis) Salim Ali
Centre of Ecology and Environmental Sciences,
Pondicherry University.
Kamilya, P. and N. Paria, (1994). Chilkigarh
(Midnapore) – a vegetational pocket. Journal of
National Botanical Society, 48:41 – 68.
Lopoukhine, N. (2008). Secretariat of the
Convention on Biological Diversity. Protected Areas in
Today’s World: Their Values and Benefits for the
Welfare of the Planet. Technical Series no. 36: 1 –3.
16
 Malhotra, K.C., Y. Gokhale and K. Das (2001a). Pandey, D.N. (1998). Communities, Knowledge and
Sacred Groves of India: An annotated bibliography. Biodiversity: Theoretical Orientation of Ethnoforestry.
New Delhi. Bhopal.

Malhotra, K.C., Y. Ghokhale, S. Chatterjee and S. Sukumaran, S. and A.D.S. Raj (2007). Rare,
Srivastava (2001b). Cultural and Ecological Endemic, Threatened (RET) Trees and Lianas In The
Dimensions of Sacred Groves in India, INSA, New Sacred Groves of Kanyakumari District. Indian
Delhi. Forester 133: 1254 – 1266.

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