(A.N. Purohit and Edwin Bernbaum)
In 1993, scientists from the G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) visited Badrinath, the major Hindu pilgrimage place in the Indian Himalayas, and noticed how the surrounding slopes and valley had been stripped bare of forest. More than 400,000 pilgrims a year come to Badrinath from all over India, arriving on roads built in the early 1960s. Their influx has had a substantial impact on the local environment. At the suggestion of the scientists, the Chief Priest agreed to use his religious authority to encourage pilgrims to plant seedlings for the restoration of the site.
A tree planting ceremony was organized on 16 September 1993, with the enthusiastic participation of pilgrims, local priests, holy men, mendicants, villagers, local residents, military, government officials and other interested parties. A number of outside dignitaries, including the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India, attended and spoke at the event. The Chief Priest blessed the seedlings and gave an inspiring talk highlighting religious beliefs and myths about the spiritual importance of trees.
One of these myths with strong environmental implications for the entire Himalayan region relates the origins of the Ganges. A sage prayed to the goddess of the sacred river to come down from Heaven. As an excuse to stay put, she claimed that the force of her descent would shatter the earth. Shiva, the form of the supreme deity most closely associated with the Himalayas, stepped in to break her fall with the hair on his head. The Chief Priest noted that Hindu texts identify the trees of the Himalayas with Shiva's hair. In the summer the Ganges does indeed fall from Heaven in the form of monsoon rains, and when the Himalayan forests are stripped away, the earth literally shatters under the water's impact with landslides and floods. He concluded by encouraging the participants to take the seedlings and plant them as an act of devotion to Lord Shiva, regenerating his sacred hair and protecting the environment. They responded with enthusiasm and planted an estimated 20,000 trees.
Because of heavy snowfall and a lack of adequate selection, care and acclimatization of the trees, most of the seedlings planted at the ceremony in 1993 did not survive the next two winters. The weight of snow and the shearing effect of sliding crust broke off the tips of many of the plants, and those that survived showed little or no growth. In May
1995, GBPIHED started a tree nursery down the valley from Badrinath at Hanumanchatti, at an altitude of 2,500 metres, to raise, harden and acclimatize seedlings for plantation in the Badrinath area.
On 5 June, a second ceremony was organized at Badrinath Temple to plant broad-leaved trees just behind and above the shrine. According to rough estimates, about 250 people participated in the ceremony and a number carried plants up to the higher plantation sites.
The original intention was to plant trees to help control erosion on slopes threatening the shrine, but a controversy over earlier use of this land by the government forced most of the planting to take place on private land owned by pandas or local priest-guides. A few seedlings were planted on the edges of the area under dispute and on steep avalanche slopes nearby. Metal guards placed around the latter were flattened and twisted by avalanches the following winter.
During the summer of 1995, trees selected from most promising species and acclimatized at the Hanumanchatti nursery were planted in various sites around the valley, including a major ashram or pilgrim guest-house in Badrinath. More than 90 percent of them survived up to the end of the fall before closure of the area for the winter. GBPIHED scientists developed special tree covers and guards and installed them on plants in November. As a result, more than 80 percent of the broad-leaved trees planted survived the winter snows and were alive when people returned in the spring of 1996. Everyone but the military and a few holy men abandons the area during the winter.
In 1996, more trees were planted at the Garahwal Scouts' Camp outside Mana and plantation began at the nearby Sikh Regiment Camp. In order to promote the theme of restoring Badrivan, the ancient sacred forest of Badrinath, each plantation site in the valley is named for the local community or group and identified with Badrivan.
In September of that year, another tree-planting ceremony took place, at Hanumanchatti, a shrine dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman and guarding the approach to Badrinath. After speeches by various dignitaries including a swami, several scientists and a brigadier, a well-known holy man, revered throughout India for his asceticism and spiritual powers, blessed and dispensed seedlings to an eager crowd of about 500 pilgrims, villagers, priests, holy men, government officials and military personnel. Villagers of the local village had donated land on a small sacred mountain next to Hanumanchatti, and people proceeded there to plant 1,500 trees in pits that scientists and villagers had prepared in advance.
Although the number of trees actually planted has been relatively small, and implementation of in intended measures has yet to be achieved, the programme at Badrinath has been extraordinarily successful in changing local opinions about reforestation. The failure of attempts to reforest the before 1993 had convinced the vast majority of the population that it could not be done. The ceremonial planting of seedlings blessed by the Chief Priest in 1993 generated a great deal of enthusiasm.
After seeing how trees have survived with special covers to protect them from snow, nearly all the population is now in favour of tree planting and thinks the programme to re-establish the sacred forest of Badrivan will succeed.
The next step will be to strengthen the programme at Badrinath and to extend it to other sites and conservation measures. Some specific measures that have been suggested by various stakeholders include cleaning up litter and disseminating seeds for pilgrims to plant back in their home communities. Intended as a collaborative effort including all the concerned parties, particularly the local people, the expanded programme will be used to develop and test guidelines for replicating the approach at other sites in the Himalayas and, where appropriate, elsewhere in the world.