Sacred groves : a traditional way of conserving plant diversity in West Midnapore District , West Bengal , India

Sacred groves are forest patches conserved by the local people interwined with their socio-cultural and religious practices. An extricable link between the past and present society in terms of religion, socio-culture, heritage and biodiversity exists in the sacred groves. It is distributed globally where ethnic indigenous communities live. Several animals and plants that are threatened in forests are still abundant and well conserved in such sacred groves. The taboos, religious belief and sacredness play a significant role in promoting sustainable utilization and conservation. In this regard, the study of a sacred grove in the district of West Midnapore in West Bengal highlighting the tradition may provide a powerful tool for ensuring biodiversity conservation through community participation.


INTRODUCTION
Sacred groves are patches of forest vegetation with rich diversity, which have been preserved by local communities for centuries based on taboos, religious beliefs and social sanctions with the implicit belief that the deities residing in them would protect the adjoining people from unfavourable calamities (Khan et al. 2008;Ormsby 2011).Sacred groves are generally considered as a part of a broader set of cultural values that may differ in various societies.But they are connected in meaningful ways to the environment of their origin (Wild et al. 2008).The interest in sacred groves from the perspective of nature conservation lies in the component of biological diversity that they harbour, such as plant species, the habitats and ecosystems, as well as the ecological dynamics and functions that support life within and outside the places.Linked to such biological diversity is the array of distinct human cultures that care for them and hold them sacred (Berkes et al. 2000).
The vast majority of sacred groves were arguably founded by indigenous or folk religions and spiritualities, but many were subsequently adopted or co-opted by mainstream religions (Verschuuren et al. 2012).There is a consequent mixing of religious and other spiritual or belief systems.Sacred groves are just one of the many domains where religions or belief systems interact with nature.Many sacred groves have been well protected over time and have seen little disturbance.Many are demonstrably high in biodiversity and represent a strong biodiversity conservation opportunity (Park 2002).Sacred groves also represent ancient and profound cultural values.The roles of sacred grove custodians from indigenous, local community and mainstream religions are expressions of dedicated cultural efforts that cared for nature in various ways (Wild et al. 2008).Sacred groves are linked to livelihoods in many ways and the concepts of cultural services and human well-being are associated with them (Gadgil & Vartak 1975;Butler & Oluoch-Kosura 2006).
The importance of sacred groves in conservation of biodiversity has recently gained wide acceptance; hence, several studies have been carried out in India to assess the biodiversity of the groves.Despite the vast and varied flora in southern West Bengal of eastern India, information on the biodiversity of the sacred groves is still limited and only a few studies have been done to understand the phytodiversity of the region (Sen 2016).
Based on this premise, this paper discusses how people ethos, local norms and belief systems surrounding plants, deities and forests in a tribal belt of West Midnapore District in West Bengal shape and conserve a large number of plant species.

Study site
The study was conducted in an isolated sacred grove at the outer edge of two tribal dominated villages (Joypur and Sinhajora in Lalgeria Gram Panchayat) under Pirakata Police Station in Salboni Block (22.580 0 N & 87.184 0 E, average altitude 57m) in the West Midnapore District of West Bengal (Fig. 1).The grove is located about 32km northwest from district headquarters at Midnapore Town, located in the southern part of West Bengal, India.

The sacred grove
The present sacred grove popularly known as 'Joypur Joysini Matar Than' (named after its presiding goddess Joysini), is situated in the Midnapore Sadar subdivision of West Midnapore District.The grove is spread over an area of 1.174ha in public land along the outskirts of the villages on the southeastern bank of the perennial Parang Rivulet.It represents a 200-250-year-old relict forest patch consisting of evergreen, deciduous and semi-deciduous plants.After the day of annual 'Paus Sankranti' (a ritual celebrated on the last day of the Bengali Month Paus or middle of January) local people, both tribals and non-tribals of Joypur and adjoining Sinhajora villages, visit the grove and worship the deity.Since the grove is an abode of the deity, the entire area along with plants and other life forms is considered sacred.Owing to this socio-cultural tag on the grove, local people do not cut or disturb the grove flora, thus strictly adhering to the taboos and ethics.

Survey methods
The study area was thoroughly surveyed from the year 2011 to 2017 in different seasons to identify the floral wealth and ethnobotanical characteristics of angiosperm plants.Phytosociology data were collected by laying 10m x 10m quadrates for tree species, 5m x 5m for shrubs and lianas, 1m x 1m for herbs and grasses.A brief floristic survey was carried out through "spot identification" basis.Samples of plants with flowers or fruits were collected.After collection, the specimens were processed, preserved, poisoned and mounted on herbarium sheets following the standard and modern herbarium techniques (Jain & Rao 1977).Photographs were taken of some of the common, locally rare, endemic, economic and medicinally valuable plant species in the sacred grove.Abbreviations of authors' names of plant species strictly followed Brummitt & Powell (1992).The herbarium sheets were identified by matching with correctly annotated materials available at the Vidyasagar University Herbarium.For identification purposes, different relevant catalogue (Anderson 1862), regional floras (Hooker 1872(Hooker -1897;;Prain 1903a,b;Sanyal 1994), monographs (Mitra 1958), revision works (Datta & Majumdar 1966) and other literature (Maji & Sikdar 1983) were consulted.
In the systematic enumeration of the taxa; species with order and family, along with habit, life-span, IUCN status (IUCN 2018) and use(s) of the plant part(s) were arranged alphabetically (Table 1).Information about local inexpensive but useful plants was collected through literature (Kirtikar & Basu 1935;Ghosh 1997Ghosh , 1998Ghosh , 2001Ghosh , 2005;;Cunningham 2001;Pakrashi & Mukhopadhyay 2004;Paria 2005;Ghosh et al. 2008;Anon 2010) and by interviewing and cross-interviewing the local people.
The present floristic study of the sacred grove showed that they harboured a total of 177 plant species [dicots 142 (80.22%) 1).
In the sacred grove, 67 (37.86%) annual plants went through their life cycle in one growing season.One (0.56%) biennial plant whose life cycle spans two years and 109 (61.58%) perennial plants that could survive most unfavourable conditions and stay alive for more than two years (Table 1).

IUCN categories
Among these 177 plants, 153 plants have not been evaluated until date.There are 21 Least Concerned (LC), one Vulnerable (VU), one Lower Risk/ Least Concerned (LR/LC), and one Data Deficient (DD) species.
Cleistanthus collinus is assessed as a Vulnerable tree species according to IUCN (2018) (Table 1).In view of the above phytosociological analysis with ecological information about IUCN Red Listed plants reveals that the plants are still present and regenerate in the sacred groves but locally vanishing in nearby forests.This study would highlight the status of the species in the study area, the ecological characteristics necessary for their survival and the threats faced by some of the species by following the criteria devised by IUCN (2018).

Traditional use(s) of plants
The grove supports 26 timbers-yielding plant species and a good number of non-timber forest products, of which, eight species produce dye, 28 species bear edible parts, seven species produce fiber, 27 species have fodder value, three species yield gum, nine species have insecticidal properties, 161 species have medicinal properties, seven species yield oil, 10 species have ornamental value, 23 species have sacred value, one species yield spices, and nine species yield tannin (Table 1; Fig. 4).

CONCLUSION
This study reveals that the sacred groves in the West Midnapore District of West Bengal are rich repositories of plants with many locally rare and threatened species.Sacred groves are ecological units by themselves and perform a range of biological functions like nutrient cycling, prevention of soil erosion, water recharging and conservation of biodiversity.The present sacred grove, though fairly well-protected by the villagers, is under mild threats due to agricultural encroachment, exotic weed invasion and erosion of people's moral values towards plants and forests.It is, therefore, our collective responsibility to take all necessary measures to safeguard these islands of biological diversity.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The study area: A -India, B -West Midnapore District in West Bengal, C -Salboni block in West Midnapore District, D -Joypur Joysini Matar Than sacred grove (Google image), E -Deity Joysini Mata inside the grove.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Major contribution of orders (≥ 10 species) in the study area.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Major contribution of families (≥5 species) in the study area.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Local use (s) of plants for different purposes.