Reigning Deities of Sacred Groves

It is only in India that sacred groves have contributed to the preservation of bio-diversity where Nature, Man and Spirit co-exist as the three arms of the “Inter-related Triad”. Sacred Groves have existed since “Hunter-Gatherer Times”, where groves are believed to manifest the “Earth-Energy” inhering in Nature, on one hand, while the “Cosmic-Forces” of gods and goddesses to which they are dedicated manifest the protective beings watching over the people and their good, on the other. Man is the third arm of the Triad whose reverence of this energy conserve forests and, in turn, biodiversity. This paper aims at an understanding of the role played by the deities of the sacred groves in the preservation of the same and, to that effect, it looks at the current scenario of worship of deities, or its absence, and tries to find answers why this is so and what can be done to repair the situation. It is based on a research study of 85 sacred groves and 500 adult respondents selected randomly according to the number of houses per hamlet in the two districts of Thane and Palghar in Maharashtra State of India. The findings state that any break in this pattern of the Triad would lead to loss of groves and the people's survival.