Watch! These Sacred Groves Protected by Local Communities Are Oases for Wildlife in Rajasthan

The communities of Rajasthan take the Indian philosophy Atithi Devo Bhava(translating into ‘the guest is God) seriously. This warmth and hospitality extend to the Demoiselle crane, whose migratory route weaves through Central Asia to settle in Rajasthan, where it remains for the winter months. 

Any inconvenience to a guest is highly regretted among the communities of Rajasthan. And so you can only imagine their pain at watching the Demoiselle crane’s numbers decline across the state, as high-tension cables interrupt their paths. 

Sumer Singh, who grew up in Sawanta, a village at the heart of the Deg Rai Oran — orans are Rajasthan’s sacred groves — shares what set alarm bells ringing in the community, “There were 14 cranes that died in 20 days, because of the cable wires. Even local travellers on camels are at risk of coming in contact with these wires. Life has changed for the people of the orans.” 

Rajasthan hosts nearly 25,000 such groves, sacrosanct to the people of the state, their biodiversity intrinsically linked to their lives. 

In recent respite to the communities, a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court recognised oran lands as ‘forests’ under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980. In its directive, the court required Rajasthan to carry out a comprehensive mapping of sacred groves and to implement the Central Empowered Committee’s 2005 recommendations so that oran lands, long excluded from official revenue records, are recognised as forests.

This lends protection to the reciprocal relationship that exists between the communities and the wildlife in the orans — where the land provides for the grazing of camels and goats, and the villagers protect the wildlife that thrives on it, through patrolling, nursing the animals back to health, and not disturbing the flora or fauna. 

The orans share ground with chinkaras, hares, foxes, desert cats, spinytailed lizards, hedgehogs, Demoiselle cranes, and birds like MacQueens’ bustard, becoming oases for biodiversity, and a model for how communities can come together to conserve the native wild. 

This story is part of a content series by The Better India and Roundglass Sustain.

Edited by Vidya Gowri Venkatesh, All pictures courtesy Roundglass Sustain

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