TY - JOUR T1 - Temple forests in India's forest development JF - Agroforestry Systems Y1 - 1990 A1 - M. G. Chandrakanth A1 - J. K. Gilless A1 - V. Gowramma A1 - M. G. Nagaraja KW - agriculture KW - forestry KW - institution KW - medicinal plants KW - planet KW - ritual KW - star KW - temple KW - traditional medicine KW - worship KW - zodiac AB -

Historically the temple forests in India have served many spiritual and religious purposes. This paper stresses on the use of the underused repertoire of sacred acts to integrate the benefits of temple forests in rural development. The tree/plant species, planting design and the rituals related to their worship documented in the great epics, vedas and upanishads are of great value especially in the context of promoting forest development and the forest development led agricultural development. The Star, Planet and Zodiac forests contain a large number of native tree species ideally suited to tropical stress and drought.

The promotion of temple forests would help developing forests in the upstream areas which can help create climax forests and aid in soil and moisture conservation to help improve the productivity of downstream agriculture. As the chief utilitarian value of these temple trees and plants is in terms of the native (ayurvedic) medicine, their propagation would not only develop the downstream farming opportunities, but also promote the native medicine sector. (author)

VL - 11 UR - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00045899 IS - 3 N1 - accepted 22 January 1990; published September 1990 U1 - Agroforest Syst ER -