VANA BHOJANAM - A CULTURE OF SUSTAINABLE PICNICING
By: Naresh Bandaru
Tags: Sustainability, Tourism, Sustainable, Environment, Environmental Issues

As it happens every year, this year too we see hordes of visitors thronging picnic spots to celebrate their annual Kartika Masam ‘Vana Bhojanam’. But is this annual ritual just another picnic or something different?

As the tradition goes, Telugu people go on a picnic with their loved ones in the lunar month of Kartika Masam. ‘Vana’ in Sanskrit and Telugu literally translates as Forest or Grove and ‘Bhojanam’ is food; thus it implies having food in a forest or a grove, in other words, a Picnic. This practice of Vana-Bhojanam is so deep rooted in the local culture that almost every family, school and even work places organize a picnic during this month. Apart from the community bonding that it results in; umpteen research studies show that spending time with nature enhances health by reducing stress. Such is the wisdom of our ancestors that they even thought of a picnic as an essential social ritual of life.

Cultural Conservation of Forests and Groves

Apart from being a pleasant change from the every day routine, the way the picnic is ‘traditionally’ organized, is definitely one of the most Sustainable ways of picnicking. While Sustainable Tourism and Picnicking is slowly gaining recognition across the world, our ancient seers have imbibed this within our culture. As per tradition, one should first offer prayers to the local deity, if a temple is present, and then to an Amla tree and other important trees before the merriment starts. This is to inculcate a sense of reverence and perceive the forest as a ‘Sacred Grove’ or ‘Pavitra-vanam’. The concept of sacred groves has been there since time immemorial in India, where forests generally have a central deity with a temple.

The ancient seers have imbibed conservation through customs with involvement of local communities rather than the top-down colonial conservation policies with little community ownership. Due to this, sacred groves are better conservation pockets than forest reserves. Recent studies show that ‘sacred groves had high species richness and diversity, presence of global endemics, high density, and high basal area supporting the view that better quality of flora is maintained in the sacred forest stands in comparison with forest reserves.

And it is interesting to note that reputed environmental scientists observed that sacred groves are one of the few forests tracts still remaining somewhat pristine. Madhav Gadgil and V.D.Varthak observe that ‘scattered, apparently throughout India, are a large number of forest tracts which have remained immune from human interference because of religious beliefs. As deforestation has been taking place at a rapid rate in many areas, such forests (sacred groves) have come to be the only remnants of the original forest in a number of cases’. Thus it is imperative to conserve or even develop the concept of Sacred Groves as a conservation measure.

Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have atleast 800 recognised sacred groves. Kailasagiri, Simhachalam, Madhavadhara, Araku Valley, Borra caves, Matsyagundam and Punyagiri are some the popular sacred groves around Visakhapatnam which people frequent for Kartika Masam Vana-Bhojanam.

Afforestation and Urban Forestation

One of the prerequisites of a Vana-bhojanam is that picnicking should happen in the vicinity of a Amla tree. This ensures that picnic revelers don't indiscriminately spread out everywhere but are restricted to only certain pockets. This apart, it was common practice to plant Amla and other shady trees in urban public spaces or available barren lands to develop urban forests. These developed groves were also used for the purpose of Vana-bhojanams.

Many households pray to certain trees and plants during this month, most common are the Amla and Tulsi plants. Both of which are known for their medicinal benefits in Ayurveda. In fact, the saplings are generally planted during the preceding rainy months before Kartika masam so that the plants would be available for puja during Kartika masam. Kartika masam was also thus associated with large scale aforestation too.

Educational Tours

Just a generation ago, at least one person in every household had a good understand of basic Ayurveda. The household kitchen essentials and home gardens were considered the first and nearest available medicine kits for treating non-serious ailments. For this, certain seeds were collected occasionally from nearby forests and groves to grow the necessary plants in home gardens or available barren lands. Furthermore, community elders also had the knowledge of those fauna, which needed to be left alone in the forests for two reasons – they wouldn’t grow well in home gardens and/ or they could be dangerous if used by non-professionals. Vana-bhojanams were used as an opportunity to pass on this knowledge to the younger generation and to anybody who was interested.

What needs to change

Things have gone awry in the last few decades due to scant regard for tradition and culture. Vana-bhojanam has become mass picnicking causing severe damage to fragile ecosystems and leaving loads of litter as a consequence. As it is, sacred groves have become stressed areas due to human greed; temple land is encroached upon or even sidelined for commercial usage. Unscrupulous picnicking and even government policies to promote high-footfall low-value tourism is furthering the damage.

Therefore,

Tradition needs resurrection and large scale awareness in this is necessary. Temples and community influencers should enlighten people about proper traditions.

Government and local body policies should also ensure that sacred groves are revered and maintained.

Strict rules should be in place in accordance with the ecosystem of the place to make sure that littering of all kinds is stopped and all disposables are strictly biodegradable.

Large scale awareness needs to be created by roping in all stakeholders viz., schools, community groups, hotels, etc for promoting Sustainable Tourism.

References:

1. Front. Psychol., 14 January 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02942

2. B. Ravi Prasad Rao, M.V. Suresh Babu, M. Sridhar Reddy, A. Madhusudhana Reddy, V. Srinivasa Rao, S. Sunitha & K.N. Ganeshaiah. 2011. Sacred groves in southern eastern ghats, India: Are they better managed than forest reserves?. Tropical Ecology 52(1): 79-90

3. Madhav Gadgil and V.D.Varthak. 1974. Sacred groves of India - A plea for continued conservation.

4. Sacred and protected groves of Andhra Pradesh. 1996. Published by WWF India and AP State Office

About the author:

Bandaru Naresh is a Sustainability professional and Social Entrepreneur. He has over two decades of rich experience in international NGOs viz., HIVOS (Programme Officer – Green Entrepreneurship) and CARE (Research & Development Officer). He has been closely associated with IUCN, Netherlands (for launching the Leaders for Nature Program in India); Applied Environmental Research Foundation, Pune; Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Chennai; Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad, and many such organizations for promoting Sustainable Production, Consumption and Conservation. He was involved in promoting Sustainability labels viz., Fairtrade and Shop for Change. In addition, he did a Certificate Course in Sustainability, University of Illinois.

He can be contacted at +91-7674831290 or naresh.bandaru@gmail.com