Divine spirits at risk

Asense of disquiet fills Kapila Naik as he leaves behind the paddy fields surrounding his village Bilapagha and starts walking up a hill, deep inside the Similipal Tiger Reserve of Odisha.

After walking for a kilometre, he stops and bows before a patch of forest, which appears much taller, denser and greener than the sur-rounding woods. “This is our jahira sala,” says Naik.

The grove, spanning less than a hectare, is home to a variety of trees, primarily sal (Shorea robusta). “They are divine souls, standing there for centuries,” says Naik, who performs all

rituals as dehuri (priest) on behalf of the 70 families of the Bathudi tribe living in this village of tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district. “No one is allowed to step into the grove, forget

about felling. Harming the grove invites bad omen and diseases,” he says. His voice starts to quiver. The century-old dictum has recently been violated by forest officials trying to

implement the state government’s Integrated Development of Sacred Grove (IDSG). In 2015, the Odisha government in a rare gesture launched the programme to identify and demarcate sacred

groves, raise seedlings for planting in the groves, ensure their maintenance for three years, prepare management plans for conservation of sacred groves and make people aware about their

importance. The government has so far identified 2,600 sacred groves; most of them located in areas inhabited by tribals who comprise 23 per cent, or 9.6 million, of the state’s 40 million

population. The grove at Bilapagha is one in the list. In 2015, the forest officials approached its residents to build a concrete wall around the grove and a shed for the forest deity. But

the infrastructure had little importance for the nature worshipper, who instead asked the officials to pave the approach road to the grove and build a check dam on a stream next to it. The

forest department, which has received R10 crore towards the protection of 670 sacred groves in the first phase of IDSG, appeared relentless. One day, the village women saw the officials

clearing under-growth in the sacred grove and dumping bricks and other construction material inside it. They protested. The officials have since not returned to the village. “Their

interference would have destroyed the grove which we have protected over generations,” says Sumitra Naik, who led women to oppose the forest officials. “They have little idea about our

emotions towards our sacred groves. They wanted to plant all kinds of trees alien to our culture and religious practices,” says Maheswar Naik, the 62-year-old advisor to the village forest

committee of Bilapagha that has traditionally been protecting 750 ha of forests around the village. Similar resentment is brewing across Mayurbhanj, where a maximum of 611 sacred groves have

been identified, the highest in the state. Tribal communities comprise 59 per cent of the district’s population. In Genteisahi, another tribal village located 50 km from Bilapagha, the

forest department has, however, managed to carry out some development works. “They constructed a shed over the forest deity, planted around 100 debdaru (polialthia), krushnachuda

(Caesalpinia pulcherrima) and mango trees without informing the village forest committee, clicked photographs and left. Most of the trees did not survive,” says Damodar Guia, dehuri of the

village inhabited by the Kolha tribe. Though there are ample mango trees in the village not a single fruit-bearing tree can be spotted inside the grove that spreads over 1.2 ha and is full

of thick sal trees. “In our culture, fruit-bearing trees are strictly prohibited in the sacred grove. That is why our forefathers have chosen areas having sal trees as our groves,” Guia

adds.