Floral diversity of sacred groves located in great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), Kullu, Himachal Pradesh (India)

Abstract

The traditional conservation models, such as, the sacred groves, sacred species and sacred landscapes demonstrate how nature is of vital importance to the indigenous people. With the passage of time, as over-exploitation dominated this “symbiotic relationship”, it got modified to “parasitism”. Conservation remained an important concept of ancient Indian Civilizations. One finds the mention of nature and its sacred elements in other Hindu texts, such as, Upanishads, Sutras and Purans. In order to curb the harmful attitude of humans towards nature, the modern day concept of ‘Conservation’ was evolved. In the present times the Sacred Groves can be considered as “Repository of Biodiversity”. Considering the forests as sacred and associating them with the local deity and folklores is one of the traditional ways of conservation. These are classic models of community based conservation built on the indigenous belief system and management practices. In Himachal Pradesh the sacred groves are known as “Dev ban”. They are mostly found in district Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, and Lahaul-Spiti. The present paper is based on studies carried out in Manhara Dev ban and Manu Rishi Dev ban located in Shansher Panchayat area of Great Himalayan National Park, Kullu, to document the floral diversity of these sacred groves.

Keywords: Sacred Groves, Floral Diversity, Great Himalayan National Park, Community Based Conservation, Himachal Pradesh.