On July 28, each year, Nature Conservation Day is marked. It’s a chance to raise awareness about the need to protect nature and natural resources in order to preserve the planet. The day is dedicated to the importance of protecting and conserving biodiversity as well as managing natural resources.
Nature Conservation Day was established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, which recognized that human actions can damage the environment, leading to reduced biodiversity and resources. In order to help protect nature, there are many organizations that engage in activities such as planting trees, reducing pollution and managing waste.
Indigenous people are the greatest protectors of natural resources, including forests and wildlife, in the world.
According to a 2019 study published by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification titled Forest and Trees: At the heart of land degradation neutrality, indigenous communities were the keepers of around 40% of protected and ecologically intact landscapes and managed almost 300 billion tonnes of carbon on lands controlled by them with little investment.
Indigenous people often have a strong connection to nature, and many are concerned about the effects of human activity on their natural surroundings. Many of these communities depend on the land for their survival, so they need to be involved in efforts to protect it.
Indigenous people can also play an important role in educating others about the need to protect nature, and they can help develop more sustainable practices.
Not only in North America, but indigenous people have also proven to be the best caretakers of nature in India.
Five Indigenous Communities That Preserve Nature In India
Bishnois
The Bishnoi women are known for suckling antelope fawns, and the people as a whole have a legendarily close relationship with the Khejri tree. Found mainly in the state of Rajasthan, their belief that all living things deserve respect has enabled these people to protect a variety of species in this region.
The Bishnois first garnered national attention in 1998, when they reported that Bollywood star Salman Khan had hunted blackbuck near Jodhpur while shooting for a film.
Guru Jambheshwar established this sect 550 years ago in western Rajasthan. He provided 29 commandments for individuals to follow and honor every natural element.
He imparted that God is an omnipresent power, present in every living thing on Earth. He further expounded that it was important to protect plants and animals as part of co-existing peacefully with nature.
The followers of Jambeshwar, also known as Guru Jambhoji, over the years have acquired the name Bishnoi. This is from the combination of Bish (20) and Noi (9), two numbers that represent the 29 principles they practice.
The Bishnois have been known for their efforts to protect natural resources since September 1730, long before the Salman Khan issue came to the limelight.
Abhai Singh, the Maharaja of Marwar, had ordered his soldiers to cut down trees in Khejarli village for construction material of a new palace. The residents refused, led by Amrita Devi; she and others held onto the trees tightly. The angry soldiers massacred 363 villagers.
The Bishnois have a long history of protecting nature, making them the perfect guardians.
Even now, the Bishnois’ way of life and their belief in Guru Jambeshwar’s teachings are so strong that you can see the landscape change as soon as you enter any Bishnoi village.
Khasis
The Khasis of Meghalaya are well-known for their matrilineal social structure throughout India. Their devotion to nature and its preservation, on the other hand, is lesser known.
The Khasis are one of the oldest groups known for their conservation efforts. Sacred groves may be preserved in the traditional laws and customs of the Khasi people.
Local village councils have been upholding these conservation practices for centuries—they’re an integral part of Khasi tradition.
The existence of the Sixth Schedule to India’s Constitution helps to maintain these customs, as communities retain ownership of properties. The Khasi hills are dotted with sacred groves, with the most famous one being at Mawphlang.
One of the main motivations for these practices is people’s reliance on nature. The Khasis people need these woodlands for various things such as food, traditional medicines, and sources of many of their streams and rivers.
Many of these basic values of conservation have endured despite the shift in lifestyle and modernization.
Van Gujjars
The Van Gujjars are a semi-nomadic pastoral community who still practice seasonal migration across forests in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh to maintain their livelihood. They have been villanised by the state Forest departments for their nomadism.
The Van Gujjars are amongst the most marginalized communities, who have survived and thrived in the Indian forests for centuries. They live on their herds of domestic livestock, which are reared in the summer months as a part of their migration cycle, when they move to higher elevations.
This seasonal movement allows them to graze their livestock, a practice which has sustained their livelihood for over hundreds of years. However, this lifestyle is under threat due to the establishment of protected areas by the Forest Department in many forests.
While these practices have been prohibited in certain forested landscapes, they are also essential to maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. The presence of Van Gujjars is also critical to maintain the ecological balance of these forests.
Over the past ten years, the Forest department has several times tried to stop Van Gujjars from entering protected areas or regions they are accused of encroaching upon.
The perceptions of criminality entrenched while determining the lives of denotified nomadic communities are frequently used to label Van Gujjars as ‘poachers.’
Additionally, rotational grazing by the Van Gujjars and their buffaloes helps to preserve water sources by levees, eradicating foreign species, enabling seed dispersion, preserving grazing areas and pathways, and establishing fire lines within forests to safeguard the ecosystem for other animals.
Idu Mishmis
The Idu Mishmis largely populate the Lower Dibang Valley and Dibang Valley districts in central Arunachal Pradesh. This tribe believes that tigers are their familial PROTECTORS. The Idu Mishmi tribe considers killing tigers taboo.
The relationship that locals have with their natural environment is usually quite different from those who live further away and do not share space with forests and wildlife.
Comparison of the conservation models of the Idu Mishmi and the West.
Westerners tend to see people and the environment as separate entities, whereas in Eastern cultures they are more likely to be seen as interconnected. The term ‘Fortress Conservation’ was first used by British anthropologist Dan Brockington to describe the western model.
Nature should be secured by transforming it into a fort with very little or no human habitation.
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For indigenous people, humans and the natural world are interconnected. The belief that humans and nature overlap is constant in their way of life through hunting, agriculture, and gathering resources.
They adhere to the belief system of animism, which dictates that animals and forests are not human property but rather belong to spirits.
In the western model of conservation, nature is seen as a resource either to be protected or harvested. For them Nature is capital.
Apatanis
The Apatanis dwell in a small wooded valley nestled among wooded hills in the Lower Subansiri region of Arunachal Pradesh.
Over time, the traditional rice agriculture in the valley progressed without any outside help from animals or wells. The terraced fields are designed at a slant, so that water flows into the higher end of each field and out through the lower end.
The effort of constructing and maintaining the fields’ bunds, as well as nursery beds and transplanting seedlings, is great. When the valley’s first outsiders arrived at the end of the nineteenth century, they remarked on its lovely “garden.”
For generations, the art of rice cultivation has been passed down through the Apatani tribe. This practice, based on traditional wisdom and experience, has allowed for sustainable and often energy efficient production that is economically viable.
Conclusion
Write the conclusion of the above article.The indigenous people of the world have a unique and intricate relationship with nature that is often misunderstood by those who do not share their space. Their beliefs about conservation are based on animism, which dictates that animals and forests are not human property but rather belong to spirits. This belief system is in stark contrast to the western model of conservation, which sees nature as a resource either to be protected or harvested.