Grove Restoration in Kishor Van

Project: Kishor Van

A Pilot Project for Rehabilitating Environmental Heritage through Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project in Vrindavan

Background: Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh’s connection with nature stretches back for thousands of years. It is a pilgrimage town due to its association with the Hindu god Krishna, who worshipped the trees, mountains, rivers and animals while teaching his family, friends and devotees to do the same. Vrindavan’s very name is derived from the words, “vrinda,” meaning the tulsi or sacred basil tree (as well as its form as a revered goddess) and “van,” meaning forest.

The whole town of Vrindavan, as well as the rest of the Braj region of which it is a part, once contained large areas of sacred forests and groves. Today, thoughtless development and mismanagement has caused these sacred green spaces to dwindle down to the bare minimum: 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.

The Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project aims to save these last bastions of environmental heritage in Vrindavan and use the experience as a pilot project for greater efforts throughout Braj.

In the Indian public imagination, Vrindavan is an idyllic small town set within a majestic forest near the pristine River Yamuna with green pastures for grazing cattle nearby. This scene serves as the backdrop for stories about young Krishna, who played and accomplished numerous heroic feats here. The popular stories of Krishna’s youth are even being aired as a cartoon series that ranks second most watched on India’s top children’s channel.

This image originally put forth in the Bhagavat Puurana and the timeless devotional poetry and literature of such great figures as Surdas, Rupa Goswami and Jayadev is still what comes to mind for many when Vrindavan is mentioned. Additionally, due to its legendary status as a dham, or dwelling place of Lord Krishna, Vrindavan is an important centre for pilgrimage. Pilgrims have come here for centuries to experience an environmental ambience that will inspire devotional ecstasy and recollection of Lord Krishna’s life in Vrindavan.

However, what people see when they visit Vrindavan today is a concrete maze of overcrowded streets filled with garbage. Sadly, there is nothing that would constitute a forest here. There are only a few trees, and these face the danger of getting chopped down as the town rushes to expand without considering consequences to the environment and its heritage role in Vrindavan.

Streets are widened and new properties are constructed, bringing in more people, which in turn means yet more cars, more garbage, less green space and less water. Pilgrimage feeds economic growth and economic growth feeds pilgrimage, but the course of economic growth here is unwieldy and threatens to destroy the very heritage that makes Vrindavan a place worth coming to.

This rapid depletion and destruction of the environment is severing a vital link between the people and the religio-cultural significance of the area. By reestablishing this link, the Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project can raise awareness among the public at large regarding conservation of sacred groves and environmental heritage.

The kunds, forests and River Yamuna are the core of environmental heritage for Braj-Vrindavan and all of them are under sustained attack. The kunds, both sacred sites and traditional rainwater harvesting catchments, are silted and going dry; the forests and groves are vanishing, and the Yamuna River is a waste canal that serves as a breeding ground for disease. These aspects of the sacred geography of Braj, which make Vrindavan and its surrounding area what it is to millions of people all over the world, will soon become ruined completely if efforts are not taken.

Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project

A rehabilitation of environmental heritage and a hope for future: Heritage is the cultural legacy that we inherit from our past and pass on to the future. Indian heritage is unique in its respect for all nature and belief that every organism on earth has a special role in life’s cycle. There is a reverence for Mother Nature in all her manifestations which is evident in the traditions, rituals and practices that permeate every aspect of life, and this is especially true in Braj.

In Braj and many other parts of India (and indeed throughout the world) Krishna serves as a vital link between people, their ecology and environment. Sacred scriptures contain numerous examples of how nature and ecology were powerful elements during Krishna’s life and times. In Shrimad Bhawatam Krishna tells his father, “The cities, the cultured lands nor the villages or their houses are ours. We are the forest people, dear father, and will always live in the forests and the hills”.

This is the heritage that will be rehabilitated through our efforts. People will be trained to protect the existing groves, gardens and forests of Braj and thus reconnect with a cultural identity that has been lost to the pursuit of quick money gained though theme tourism. Tourism and pilgrimage both will vanish along with the groves as the rush for growth continues. Now is the time to reverse this process to make people see that conservation can be more profitable than destruction, especially in the long run.

Kishore Van: a pilot project for the sacred grove conservation

The choice of Kishor Van as a starting point for the Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project is an obvious one. 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 our efforts.

Krishna’s past in evidence is in real danger of disappearing and Kishor Van, along with the other two remaining groves of Vrindvan, is one of the few remaining legacies from Vrindavan’s past. It is here that Krishna is believed to have danced with his gopis and many consorts and played his flute for them. Many people believe that Krishna still comes to these groves every night to dance and play, which is why nobody is allowed to enter these groves to after sundown lest they disturb the divine activities.

At present, Vrindavan’s groves have only scattered patches of stunted shrubbery. The Sacred Groves Conservation and Revival Project aims to restore these groves to the glory they possess in sacred texts and the popular imagination by accomplishing the objectives outlined below.

Objectives:

Step One: Preparation

• Conduct surveys of local flora and fauna.
  
• Form Sacred Grove Management Committee
  
• Conduct Sacred Grove Management Workshop

Step Two: Restoration

• Develop a tree nursery to grow the typical trees of Braj-Vrindavan.
  
• Create circular paths through the grove.
  
• Install micro-speakers throughout Kishor Van and play light flute music so that people feel Lord Krishna’s presence there.
  
• Arrange iron nets to protect the trees from monkeys.
  
• Production of a leaflet for the use of visitors to the grove

Step Three: Maintenance, Community Participation and Education

• Organize a Workshop to assess community needs.
  
• Conduct education programmes with local communities focusing on the concept of conservation and the importance of protecting sacred groves.
  
• Sponsor plantation drives in the grove in which school children will participate.

Step Four: Gearing up for what comes next

• Identification of two tour guides to take the visitors to all the sacred grove sites in Braj.
  
• Identification of all the sacred groves in Braj.