International Day for Biological Diversity

PRESS RELEASE

Vrindavan, May 22nd, 2010: Friends of Vrindavan celebrated the International Day for Biological Diversity (World Biodiversity Day) in Vrindavan. A seminar and a tree plantation drive was organised at Kishore Van.

The speakers said that the sacred forests and groves have always been a defining characteristic of Vrindavan and the larger Braj region of which Vrindavan is a part. These green areas, along with various kunds and the Yamuna River, are glorified in detail in the Bhagavat Purana and the timeless poetry and literature of such great figures as Surdas, Rupa Goswami and Jayadev. Together, these natural features constitute the foundation of the area’s environmental heritage, creating the vision of Vrindavan that exists in the popular imagination and devotional musings of people all over the world.

Currently, this environmental heritage is under sustained attack from thoughtless development and mismanagement as businesses and institutions scramble to obtain quick money from pilgrimage and tourism. The kunds, both sacred sites and traditional rainwater harvesting catchments, are silted and going dry, and the Yamuna River is a waste canal that serves as a breeding ground for disease. The sacred groves of Vrindavan are nearly extinct: only a handful of specific spaces and trees remain, and even these have been ravaged by water shortages and a population of monkeys that is too large for the town to sustain.

Only three of the many sacred groves of Vrindavan are still in existence today. These are Nidhivan, Seva Kunj and Kishore Van. Kishore Van is the smallest of the three and thus a good place to begin the efforts of reviving and conserving it.

Pilgrimage and tourism both will vanish along with environmental heritage if the rush for growth continues to go on unchecked. People stand to lose not only their heritage, but their livelihoods as well. Now is the time to reverse this process by making people see that conservation can be more profitable than destruction, especially in the long run. The ongoing degradation of Vrindavan’s environment is rapidly severing a vital link between the religio-cultural significance of the area and the people who live and make pilgrimages here.

By restoring and conserving sacred groves, Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival (SGCR) can help reestablish this link and communicate the need to rescue the entirety of Braj-Vrindavan’s endangered environmental heritage. Friends of Vrindavan (FoV) declared to adopt Kishore Van for the revival of its sacred grove with the participation from the local community.

The function was addressed by His Holiness Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami, Acharya Naresh Narayan, Shri Arvind Kumar (Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board), Shri Govind Kishor Goswami, Shri Bal Krishna Gautam, Shri Neeraj Agrawal (Secretary - GLA Institute of Technology and Management, Dr. Chandra Prakash Sharma (Secretary - Brajwasi Panda Sabha), Shri Sushil Chandra Sharma, Shri Brajendra Goswami, Shri Anshuman Gopal Ji, Dr. Devendra Chaitanya Brahmachari, and many others. The vote of thanks was given by Shri Pradyumna Pratap Singh.

See also: Grove Restoration in Kishor Van.