828 S. Mokashi and S. A.W. Diemont
Kent, 2013; Acharya & Ormsby, 2017). There are only a few documented exceptions. In Sierra Leone the sacred forests, sande, are under the exclusive control of women (Lebbie & Freudenberger, 1996). In Okinawa, Japan, women’s control extends beyond the sacred forests: they are the acknowl- edged and respected leaders of the local religion and hence are the principal priestesses in the community (Sered, 1999). To address this gap in scholarship, we explore the per-
spectives of women towards their sacred forests, the taboos surrounding sacred forests, and the future changes they ex- pect. This research is a part of a study that examined com- munity perceptions of and relationship with sacred forests. Additionally, we suggest that, as threats to sacred forests are increasing and the institution is crumbling, women can play more active roles in the management of sacred forests. This would not only help in strengthening the institution but also in reviving it in places where it has been degraded.
Study area
This study was carried out in the region of Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary in Western India. The Sanctuary lies in the northern Western Ghats in the state of Maharashtra, 110 km from Pune. Sacred forests are common in the Western Ghats (Chandran, 1998; Bhagwat et al., 2005, 2013), and Bhimashankar is well-known for its sacred village forests. The c. 131 km2 Sanctuary (Rao et al., 2008; Fig. 1) was ga- zetted by the Maharashtra government in 1985 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972. The Sanctuary is named after the Bhimashankar temple, which is located within the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary and its surrounding region comprise mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, forests, agricultural fields, villages and sacred forests. Bhimashankar Sanctuary includes the crest of the
Western Ghats, the steep western slopes, and some of the spurs running into the eastern plains, along with valleys, gorges and plateaus (Borges, 1996; Mahabal, 2009), at alti- tudes of 340–1,208 m (Mahabal, 2009). The Sanctuary is under the administrative control of the Maharashtra Forest Department, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Pune. The two main rivers in the region are the Bhima and the Ghod, which originate in the western part of the Sanctuary and flow eastwards. The Bhimashankar region experiences three seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Mean maximum and minimum temperatures are 36 and 7 °C, respectively, and mean annual rainfall is 3,000 mm, mostly falling during the monsoon. The Sanctuary harbours a diverse flora and fauna, including endemic species. A total of 529 animal species have been recorded (Zoological Survey of India, 2009), including 236 bird species, 66 mammals, 54 reptiles (one turtle species, 18 lizards and 35 snakes), and 65 butterfly species. The majority of the vegetation belongs to
FIG. 1 Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary and the surrounding region, with the locations of the 20 villages where we made preliminary visits during 2015–2016. (Base map by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0.)
the western subtropical broadleaved hill-forests type, also known as montane broadleaved semi-evergreen forest (Rahangdale & Rahangdale, 2017). The Bhimashankar region is inhabited primarily by the
Mahadev Koli tribal community, along with a smaller popu- lation of Katkaris and Dhangars, settled in villages, some of which comprise numerous hamlets. After the declaration of the Sanctuary in 1985, a few villages came to be within its boundaries, and thus the Sanctuary includes village, commu- nal and privately owned agricultural lands and forests. The majority of this private land is owned by the Mahadev Koli tribal community. Ten villages lie within the boundaries of the Sanctuary and 111 lie within 10 km (Pande & Pathak, 2005). For this study, we considered villages located within the Sanctuary and those within 10 km of the Sanctuary boundary. The Mahadev Koli is one of the scheduled tribes of India.
They are a forest-dependent community engaged in agricul- ture, cattle rearing, the sale of milk and milk products, and the collection and sale of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Shifting cultivation was widely practiced in this region before the consolidation of forests under British rule (Rao et al., 2008), after which people began to cultivate rice and other crops. Shifting cultivation is, however, still practised on a smaller scale, with varieties of millet such as nachani Eleusine coracana, varai Panicum sumatrense and sawa Panicum millaere. Although cultivation and cattle
Oryx, 2021, 55(6), 827–834 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605320001179
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