Surveying Local Sacred Groves

‘No man is an island’ wrote John Donne, adding a few lines later ...‘and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee’. For the remaining forests and ecological bio- diversity of our local area, the bell has been tolling for a long time and there are only scattered islands of indigenous forest left in a sea of humanly degraded landscapes.

One of Auroville’s success stories has been the greening and transformation of severely denuded and eroded land to what is now a diverse, rich and, in pockets, thriving woodlands. For the last decades most of the forests in Auroville are transitioning from the original pioneer species to the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) which has grown up in the shade of the larger pioneer trees, and which has benefitted from the bunding, water conservation and biomass build up. Nowadays greenworkers only need to go out seed collecting to bolster genetic diversity of certain species, as Auroville itself has become a TDEF seedbank.

Recently the Auroville Botanical Gardens received funding from Ramco Cements CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme for a TDEF conservation project. This included a range of environmental programmes; education for high school children and adult training, for a dry and virtual herbarium and supporting botanical documentation; as well as the work of evaluating the TDEF’s present ecological status by implementing rapid assessment surveys. The idea is to create a comparative study with the initial surveys from the early 1990s to mid 2000s of local forest remnants surviving in sacred groves. This report Exploring the Ecological Status of TDEF, held within the sacred temple groves of the Coromandel coastal belt authored by Glenn Baldwin, gives the chance to see what changes have happened since then and with that data how to further preserve the TDEF.

TDEF

The TDEF is a narrow coastal belt of forest in South India hosting over a thousand different plant species, three hundred of which are woody. It has adapted to cyclonic weather with a relatively low canopy of 8-10 meters, which holds its nutrient wealth, so if the vegetation is cut the soil is quickly leached and eroded by intense monsoon rains. Shockingly only 0.2% of this range now exists as a TDEF ecosystem in a narrow range 500 km long and no wider than 50 kms hugging the Coromandel coast. Alongside this flora, the fauna also includes smaller mammals, such as mongooses, civet cats, porcupines, as well as many insect species. Sadly, the days of elephants and leopards roaming free has passed. The remaining strands of the TDEF mainly exist in sacred groves that are found around temples outside villages, and which have been preserved as sacred by a religious belief system surrounding the deity protecting the trees. Whilst none of the groves could be classified as a forest, the surviving vegetation would historically have been part of the original TDEF of the area.

Sacred Temple Groves

In the initial surveys, twenty or so years ago, the Auroville botanical team made the discovery that the last survivors of the TDEF were mainly located in sacred groves. Most of these temples were dedicated to the deity Ayyaner who enjoyed hunting in the woods at night, resulting in forests that were kept sacred and protected.

The latest report focussed on fifty-eight local sacred groves within the Chengalapattu, Cuddalore and Villapuram districts in order to track the changes that had occurred since the first research journeys. The team included Jaap den Hollander who led the first explorations, championing the new, at that time, use of GPS. They were therefore able to compare in detail the loss and to a lesser degree growth of the TDEF forests. The report has ‘before’ and ‘now’ satellite images of every grove, as well as maps of where particular species are located.

The team had a variety of objectives: descriptions of the state of canopy and understory, noteworthy species and regeneration, notes of large specimens, temple development and the frequency with which each grove was visited. GPS was used to collate the surface areas of each grove, including temple constructions, water bodies and forests, and then this was compared to past data from the early 2000s. The botanists also scanned the groves for the presence of new species missed in the past. The report ended with an additional feature of ‘heritage’ large trees.

Glenn noted that he “wanted the report to be used as a tool, not only as a scientific article, but a tool to protect a beautiful thing. Let’s protect the forest together.” He pointed out that in Auroville’s planning we have the chance of a ‘win/win’ using TDEF flora, which do not need water, and are woody, evergreen and shady. Their drought resistant nature results in him “never having to water a plant I’ve planted.” He notes that whilst regionally the plants utilized in gardens and landscaping are very standard and quite limited in species, in Auroville “we have a wealth of rare and unusual plants, with textures, depths, forms, shapes and colours that are so beautiful and, being native, appropriate to plant here.” Other work to promote TDEF outside the forests of Auroville include the planting in small plots in hotels, factories and on private land whose owners want to restore the native ecology in order to expand the islands of TDEF in our bioregion.

The report concludes that “the ecology of the groves is under pressure and thus it is degrading.... meaning the last remnants of the TDEF are therefore under threat.” It also adds that whilst the “ecology of the groves is on a downward trajectory, they still contain amazingly diverse remnants, and are still holding an important biodiversity gene bank”. It states that with will there is still time to reverse the downward direction, and that through education and campaigns the value of the biodiversity contained within the groves and the need to protect the rare ecosystem could be promoted. As a next step, the team are planning to produce educational materials, including brochures and posters that can be used in local schools. This would be an effort to make the next generation aware of the rare heritage they have on their doorsteps and hopefully, in the long-term, help preserve the TDEF in these sacred groves.

The fifty plus page report ends with a touching epilogue where the team mentions they had noticed a rare, one metre ebony tree seedling in a small sacred grove called Periyamudaliarchavady, close to Auroville. In past surveys of this grove this species was never present. The only reason it could be there is that it is within a kilometre of Auroville’s Shakti forest, one of the earliest forest regeneration projects, and easily within the range of the fruit bat seeding propagators. Who can tell how many other unknown floral miracles are sprouting and bringing indigenous diversity back to our local bioregion?

Size of groves: Under a hectare: 33 groves: 58% ; between 1-2 hectares: 8: 14% ; between 2-6 hectares: 14: 24% ; between 6-20 hectares: 3: 5%

Average number of species in 58 groves: 69. Of 25 tree species: 3 were in most groves and ‘secure’, 9 were in 10-20 groves and ‘vulnerable’, 13 found in less than 10 of the groves and ‘very vulnerable’

Shrubs: Of 15 species, 8 are in less then 5 locations and ‘very vulnerable’, 6 present in 13-24 groves and ‘less vulnerable’, only 1 is widespread