Sacred groves – an ancient tradition of nature conservation of sthalavrikshas in coimbatore, tamil nadu, india

Abstract

In India sthalavrikshas worship in temples was a religrous practice. In Tamil Nadu almost every temple is associated with a plant or tree connected to the history and mythology of the temple and or deity. The worshipper who comes to the temple attains a healty spiritua; enlighten. Sthalavrikshas is a natural tree found in the temple site brfore construction of the temple. The present investigation was carried out in coimbatore district to enumerate the sthalavrikshas associate with temple by field observation method. During the field visit temples were frequently visited and surveyed for the sthalavrikshas from the month of December 2019 - February 2020. The survey was conduced at 46 ancient temples of the coimbatore district and revelated the occurrence of 19 sthalavrikshas species were observed in different area of coimbatore district. These sacred plants are worshiped by the local people for getting the blessing of health and wealth by positive powers of nature. Sthalavrikshas are germplasm reservers and an indicator of socio-cultural conservation strategy. It is concluded that the Sthalavriksha worship is an age old practice, myths, beliefs and floklore play a major role in the exsistance of Sthalavrikshas worship and this customms help in plant conservation.