Temple forests in India's forest development

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)