national children science congress (sacred groves)

NATIONAL CHILDREN SCIENCE CONGRESS

Visit to sacred groves in Pondicherry

28 august 2015

venue: sacred groves , Pondicherry

.As a part of the project , we students namely paromita roy , akila , aruna , akil santheya  , janavi with the help of our teacher mr. venkata krishnan decided to proceed with this topic (sacred groves ) . he gave a detailes description about all the sacred groves in pondicherry, their importance and plants species found in each of them . 

                                    

sacred groves are tracts of virgin forest, which have been protected by the local people for centuries  for their cultural and religious belief.
Every sacred grove carries its own legends, lore, and myths which form the integral part of the sacred grove. An inextricable link between present society and past in terms of biodiversity, culture, religious and ethnic heritage exists in sacred groves. Sacred groves are distributed across the globe, and diverse cultures recognize them in different ways encoding various rules for their protection. Sacred groves occur in many parts of India viz., Western Ghats, Central India, northeast India, etc. particularly where the indigenous communities live.

 HOW IS SACRED GROVE RELATED TO CLIMATIC CONDITIONS?

 

 Sacred grove is a religious platform for BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION.

Sacred groves have been protected by the local people for centuries for their beliefs .

These groves protect the villagers in case of  calamities and the climatic condition around the village is really very pleasant as they don’t allow anyone to cut these trees.

Each sacred grove carries its own legends, lore and myths which form the integral part of the sacred grove .

When we compare the past and present society we see a lots of changes in the society relates to trees . Sacred grove is a way to conserve the trees for religious belief . Sacred grove is called ‘ kovil kadugal ‘.                                                   

THENANBAKKAM - AZHAGAR KOVIL
   

This sacred grove is famously known as tha azhagar kovil. Tha sacred grove is named after the famous saint azhagar . It is believes that this saint was living and was helping the village people by all means in this grove for longer time .one day he got into the well in the grove and disappeared . So a temple was built followed by his name . An iyyangar kovil is also seen there . An astonishing feature in this sacred grove is that , lots of idols of people , animals and houses  are found and are called votive offerings to the diety . The dominant species found here is pongamia pinnata(pungan), tamarindus indica(tamarind),ficus bengalensis.

SIVARANTHAGAM - VILLIANUR 

žThis sacred grove is spread to an area of 1.2 acres . This unique feature of this sacred grove is that only one big banyan tree is found which is very old. It is about 300 years old and height is about  36m.  

žThe tree and the total area is safeguarded by a women and her family . There is a Ponni amman koil nearby.

žThe shooting of “LIFE OF PI” was held there and it is termed one of a huge and oldest tree of Tamil nadu.

žMany newspaper articles have been published based on the tree .

 The tree is a house for many different kinds of birds and three big snakes live there .

YANA MUNJI MARAN IN MUTHIALPET - PONDICHERRY

 A rare tree species, which has become 

more than just an identity for the area, has turned into a deity gigantic trunk resembles lord ganesha .

In the last four decades, the African Baobab tree, known as 

 Adansonia digitata, has grown close to the hearts of residents

of Manjini Nagar. There are only two such species in

 Puducherry, the other one being on the premises of Swadeshi Mills.

Surprised by the resemblance of the tree’s huge trunk to “Valampuri” Vinayagar, residents have constructed a small temple and conduct daily pujas and grand celebrations every year. Though the residents have various versions of the origin of the tree and its age most of them believe that it have brought them luck and welfare in many ways.

                                 

Pooranankuppam Sacred Grove (Iyyannar Kovil)

This sacred grove has an area of 1.5 Hectares. The main deity of this sacred grove is 

Iyyannar. Hence it has a temple by name Iyyannar Kovil. 

Every sacred grove has its own

 uniqueness. The dominant species found here is 

Lepisanthes tetraphylla (Kugamathi), 

which is plentiful. The second dominant species is Crataeva 

reliogiosa (Mavalinga maram).

 Sandalwood trees Santalum album are also found in 

surplus, even though they are not 

endemic to this region but due to dispersal of seeds by birds 

it has resulted in the growth of 

sandalwood trees. An exotic flowering species is also found 

here which is called as

Plumeria alba (Kappal alari). The flowers of this plant are 

offered to God. This sacred grove 

is very rich in Biodiversity

Manappattu Sacred Grove (Iyyannar Kovil)

This sacred grove has an area of 1.20 hectares. This is one

 of the oldest sacred groves amongst all. This is a 

coastal sacred grove. The dominant or the unique species

 found here is the Garcinia spicata (Kokothai) .Pamburu 

smissionis (Kadanathi) and Calamus rotang (Pirambu) are

 other species. This sacred grove is deteriorating very slowly.

 The main 

reason is that, it being next to a water body farmers have cleared the land and used it for cultivation of crops etc.

Mangalam Sacred Grove

This scared grove has an area of approximately 1.20 hectares. The deity present here is Iyyannar. Amongst all, this is the only sacred grove with dense forest. The four canopy layers of vegetation growth can be observed here, i.e. Tallest tree, 10m length trees form the first canopy, the second with 6-8 m height trees, the Shrubs constitute the third layer and the Ground strata (which include the herbs, twiners and climbers). The other specialty of the sacred grove is, liana is also found. A liana is long-stemmed, woody climbers that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous forests and rainforests, including temperate rainforests. These climbers often form bridges between the forest canopy, connect the entire forest and provide arboreal animals with paths across the forest. These bridges also protect weaker trees from strong winds. They also compete with forest trees for sunlight and soil resources (water and nutrients). The oldest liana Derris scan dense is found here which has a girth of 120 cm which shows the age of the sacred grove i.e. 500 - 600 years old.

IMPORTANCE OF SACRED GROVES;

žSacred grove provide shelter to thousands of species of other plants and animals .

žThey have great powers to heal body and spirit .

žThey help in keeping the water cycle in local areas .

žPrevent soil erosion and improve soil stability.

žThese are the last refuse for endemic and endangered plant and animal species.

They are the storehouse of medicinal plants

CONCLUSION ;

This project has really helped us in understanding and preserving our Eco system . we thank our teachers and our principal for providing and wonderful opportunity .