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TRADITIONAL INDIAN AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT : CURRENT RELEVANCE AND FUTURE POTENTIAL

Traditional Indian Agriculture and Natural Resourced Management : Current Relevance and Future Potential presentation made by A.V.Balasubramanian during the seminars -"Research for National Resurgence" organised by Bharathaaya Vichara Kendram at Kochi in August 2003.

I am extremely delighted to be present at this gathering of research scholars and distinguished academics. Any effort to find a new direction for research is to start with a kind of stock taking regarding the current situation and our understanding of where the problem lies. I shall take this opportunity to share with you some thoughts regarding the Indian approach to Natural Resources Management. I wish to emphasize that what is important and critical in this connection is not only the content of the knowledge but also the social organisation and propagation of this knowledge. This can be amply illustrated by several examples.

India abounds in a variety of traditions of restraints on the exploitation of wild plant and animal resources. These traditions relate to various factors such as -

The Territory over which a given human group may exploit the plants and animals.
The Season in which the exploitation is permitted
The sex and stage in life history for which exploitation is permitted
The Method of exploitation and Quantum which may be exploited by some of all castes
Niche Specialization
Maintenance of Sacred Groves, Pools and Ponds
Sacredness attributed to plants and animals
Maintenance and propagation of Agricultural Biodiversity

We shall discuss below some specific examples of these various practices.

1. TERRITORIALITY

Tribal societies of India are often organized as hunting-gathering tribes each with its own exclusive territory (1). This territoriality persisted in one from or the other with all Indian castes till recent times. Thus, the fisherman of Goa on the West Coast report that seines from each fishing village would operate on the coast within a well-defined limit. Similarly, Nandivallas are a nomadic caste of entertainers of Western Maharashtra. They also engage in extensive hunting with the dogs for porcupines, monitor lizards, wild pigs etc. Each group of the Nandivallas entertains and hunts within a well -defined territory (2). Similarly, pastorals like the Dhanger shepherds of western Maharashtra wander extensively grazing over an area defined for and hereditarily controlled by various groups of shepherds. This territoriality had two significant consequences. Firstly the pressure of exploitation was evenly dispersed over the exploited plant and animal populations. Secondly, each group had an awareness that the resources of its hereditary territory had sustained it for generations, and were to sustain their descendents, who would inherit the territory and their mode of resource exploitation, for generations to come. This facilitated the cultural evolution of a variety of other restraints on the exploitation of living resources.

2. SEASONAL RESTRICTIONS

The Hindu month of Sravana (approximately mid-August to mid_September) which coincides with the peak of the main rainy season over most of India is a period during which many castes abstain totally from consumption of fish, poultry, meat and consequently suspend all hunting as well. The harvest of certain wild plants is ritually restricted to certain days of the year. Thus, in Jhukol Panagari area of Uttarkashi of Himalayas, the tubers of a plant, locally known as Nakhdur may be harvested only at the time of a religious festival, as is also the case with flowers of Brahmakamal - a herb of alpine meadows near the Nandadevi peak in Chameli district of Himalayas.

3. LIFE HISTORY STATES

The famous Indian epic Ramayana, begins with the scene where the poet Valmiki - a member of a hunting tribe - is inspired to compose poetry for the first time in his life on witnessing the killing of one of a pair of copulating cranes. Such a killing was strictly against the prevailing ethic. In fact heronaries, breeding colonies of storks, egrets, herons, ibises, cormorants, pelicans, etc., almost invariably receive full protection from the village closest to the heronary. For instance, in the Bangalore district of South India, there is a village known as Kokra-Bellur (literally - "village of storks"), where painted storks and grey pelicans have bred on trees lining the village streets since times immemorial. The villagers not only chase away the hunters, they even chase away photographers if they disturb the nesting birds. The villagers are often quite rationally aware of the values of the bird guano as fertilizer for their fields.

In Bhandara district of Maharashtra the traditional fishing castes never disturb the spawning aggregations of fresh water fishes in the hill streams. The hunting tribe of Phaseparadhis of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra whose main quarry is the blackbuck, report that they traditionally let loose any fawns and pregnant does caught in their snares.

4. METHOD AND QUANTUM OF EXPLOITATION

The fresh water fishes of the river Yamuna in its upper reaches in the Jainpur tract of the Himalayan district of Tehri-Garhwal are exploited through netting as well as poisoning. Traditionally, netting was permitted at any time of the year, but poisoning was permitted only at one time of the year for a few days in conjunction with a festival when the river is in spate and the effect of the poisoning is probably quite restricted in time. The fish are poisoned and consumed by all the meat-eating castes of the tract as a community endeavour.

Many Indian villages maintained a village forest on communal land. The village forests were protected and carefully exploited by the village community as a whole. There were often well specified limits on the quantum of exploitation for material such as firewood from these forests. Thus, only one member of each household gathers fuel wood once a week from the village forest of Gopeshwar in Chamoli district of Uttar Pradesh, Himilayas. In consequence, this village forest is still well preserved, although most of the neighbouring land has been completely deforested.

5. NICHE SPECIALIZATION

The various castes living within a small geographical region show in various localities adjustments in their utilization of natural resources so that each caste specialized in the use of some narrow range of resources and overlapped little with other castes of the same region. The consequence was that a given resource of a given locality sustained one relatively small homogenous endogamous and self governing group over a long time span. These conditions must have facilitated the cultural evolution of restraints on over exploitation of living resources.

Two specific examples of such niche diversification may be cited here. The region of the crestline of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra around lat.18 degrees North is inhabited by two major castes Kunbis and Gavlis. Of these, the Kunbis practice paddy cultivation on the hill slopes. They indulge extensively in hunting. They barter their cereal grains for buter produced by the Gavlis. The Kunbis keep only a few cattle for draft purposes. The Gavlis on the other hand live on the upper hill terraces on which they do a little shifting cultivation. Their major occupation is keeping buffaloes and cattle. They curdle the milk, consume the buttermilk at home and barter the butter for cereal grains from the Kunbis. The Gavlis get their protein supply from the buttermilk and do no hunting. Thus, the cultivation of valleys and lower hill slopes is restricted to Kunbis and the cultivation of upper hill slopes and of hill terraces to Gavlis. Similarly, the maintenance of domesticated animals and exploitation of all fodder and grazing is restricted to Gavlis and hunting of wild animals to Kunbis (3). Another interesting instance of niche diversification is provided by three nomadic hunting communities of semi-arid tracts of Western Maharashtra - Nandivallas, Phaseparadhis and Vaidus. The primary occupation of Nandivallas is entertainment and fortune telling, that of vaidus dispensing of herbal medicines, while Phaseparadhis are specialist hunter gatherers. The Nandivallas and Vaidus, unlike the settled castes, do a great deal of hunting in addition to their primary occupations. It turns out that the three castes use distinctly different hunting techniques and specialize on different prey species. Thus, nandivallas concentrate on hunting with dogs and go for wild pig, porcupine and monitor lizard. The Vaidus use baited traps for hunting smaller carnivores such as mongooses, civets, jackals and cats while the Phaseparadhis specialise in snaring blackbuck, deer and birds.

6. SACRED GROVES, POOLS AND PONDS

There occur throughout India patches of vegetation, or sacred groves, which receive special protection from the local community on grounds of their association with some deity. Most of these sacred groves were traditionally free from any exploitation. There are however groves known as Orans associated with the Goddess Jogmaya in the Aravalli hills of Western India where it was permitted to take away wood for fuel so long as the collection did not involve the use of any metal implements.

As Gause's classical experiments have shown (4), a very effective way of preventing the extinction of prey populations in a predator-prey system is to provide the prey with "refugia" or regions in which the prey is immune from predation. Such a traditional system of refugia in India was the network of sacred groves, ponds and pools in the courses of rivers and streams (5,6). These were patches of land or water, which were dedicated to some deity and were kept free of all exploitation, both of plant and animals. They ranged in extent from fifty hectares or more to a few hundred square meters. Where the network of sacred groves has remained intact till recent times, as in the South Kanara district on the West Coast, one can see that they formed islands of climax vegetation ranging in size from a small clump to a hectare on more, and originally covering, perhaps five percent of the land area. This must have been a very effective way os preserving tropical biological diversity for we are still discovering new species of plants, species which have disappeared from everywhere else, in these sacred groves. For instance the woody climber, - Kunstleria keralensis, was thus "discovered" a few years back (7).

In Bangladesh, every shrine has at least one pond attached to ti, and the animals in such ponds are inviolate. two of such sacred ponds are of biological interest for their harbour populations of endangered species; the Byazid Bostami has a turtle Trionyx nigricans, and Khan Jahan Ali has marsh crocodile. The former is of particular interest since it is the only known population of this turtle in the world. It is notable that the Muslim shrine of Byazid Bostami was apparently built around 300 A.D at a spot which was earlier occupied by a Buddhist shrine. Thus, the tradition of protection of the turtle and the sacred pond is likely to be an ancient tradition assimilated by Islam (8).

7. SACRED PLANTS AND ANIMALS

In India a variety of plant and animal species have been considered sacred by one or more communities and therefore never destroyed (9). The most widely protected of such organisms is the peepal tree (ficus religiosa), found depicted on Mohenjodaro seal of around 2000 B.C Other species of the genus Ficus are also considered sacred. Ficus are also considered sacred. Ficus is a genus of particular significance in the overall maintenance of tropical biological diversity - a "keystone mutualist" 910). In particular, its preservation may have helped to maintain high levels of populations of frugivorous birds, especially pigeons and doves. Other plants and animals receive less universal protection, being sacred only in particular locations or to particular castes. The peafowl, for example, is sacred to Lord Kartikeya and is never hunted, and is consequently abundant around Kartikeya temples, in the Southern state of Tamilnadu. It is more widely protected all over the Western states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The blue rock pigeon (Columba livia) is considered sacred to the saint Hazrat Shah Jalal and is protected and encouraged to breed in artificial nest baskets in rural Bangladesh. Even the rodents are protected and abound in the famous temple of Karnimata Goddess in the state of Rajasthan.

Many castes or clans within the castes have certain totemic plants or animals which they do not destroy or let others destroy if they can help it. Thus, the Maratha clans of Mores and Ghorpades from Maharashtra derive their clan names from their totemic animals - peafowl and monitor lizard respectively - and will protect these animals, although other clans of the same Maratha caste will hunt and eat them. By far the most remarkable example of protection to certain species is that of the Bishnoi sect of Western India (11). This Hindu sect, founded in 1485 A.D. enjoins its followers never to cut a green tree, or kill any animal. They hold as specifically sacred the khejdi tree (Prosopis cinerare) which is by far the economically most valuable tree in the desert tractrs in which this sect originated. It is recorded that in 1630 A.D. three hundred and sixty three Bishnois sacrificed their lives to prevent the King of Jodhpur from cutting down these trees to furnish the fuel for the lime-kilns to build a new palace. The Bishnois also protect the wild animals including blackbuck and chinkara. To this day, the tradition is very much alive and the Bishnoi villages are a refreshing scene of greenery and plentiful wild life in the Indian desert.

8. MAINTENANCE AND PROPAGATION OF AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY

India is the home of one of the richest diversity of cultivated crops known to us. If we take the example of one of our principal crops - namely Rice, it has been estimated by the well known Rice expert Dr. R. H. Richaria, that India had about four hundred thousand varieties of Rice during the Vedic period. He has himself collected and identified over twenty thousand varieties of Rice from just the Chattisgarh area of Madhya Pradesh. The crop is grown throughout the year in some part of the country or the other. It is cultivated in altitudes ranging from 7000 feet above sea level to 10 feet below sea level. There are varieties of Rice that grow in regions with rainfall ranging from twenty inches to two hundred inches a year. There are a large number of cultural practices related to the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. Some examples are cited below.

At the Temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri in Orissa, there is a custom that the food offered to the Lord is always cooked from freshly harvested rice every day. This has the implication that there was a sufficiently large number of rice varieties so that they could be harvested round the year.
The festival of Ugadhi celebrated every year in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh has a ritual which serves as a test for the germination capacity of various grain varieties, based on the test suitable varieties are selected for planting each season. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, there is the festival of "Mulaippari", that appears to serve a similar function.
Specific varieties of grains are considered suitable for sowing in various conditions and for distinct uses by convention based on the observation and understanding of its action. For example, there are rice varieties known in Tamilnadu, that are said to be suited for sowing in a dry (low rainfall) season, when there is a lot of sand and dust etc.(13). In Sri Lanka, distinct Rice varieties are considered best for - use by lactating, for breaking a fast etc. (14).

It is clear that India has had a remarkable tradition of practices relating to the conservation of biodiversity and bioresources. It is interesting to see that many of these practices and traditions have survived in some form or the other right down to this period even though our society and its resources have been under a state of tremendous stress and strain for the last two centuries. These traditions reveal to us that the Indian society has an approach to nature that is intrinsically ecofriendly. Today in various parts of the world there is a lot of talk regarding the need for ecofriendly technologies, sciences and models of development. However, in most of these cases this is a "post facto" realisation that has come about as a result of industrialisation that has been devastating to the environment over the last few centuries. Thus, the ecofriendliness that is widely discussed today is in the nature of a - "corrective" - to a philosophy that is essentially antagonistic to nature. In striking contrast we find the traditional Indian approach is intrinsically ecofriendly in its basic conception. This is amply illustrated by the examples given which show that ecofriendliness manifests itself in varieties of customs, norms and traditions from every sphere of life be it social, cultural or religious and indeed penetrate the very fabric and core of our society.

FOLK AND CLASSICAL WISDOM

Another striking feature of the organisation and knowledge in India is that it manifests itself at multiple levels ranging from the oral tribal and folk traditions to the written down classical traditions with its texts and theoretical framework. This is true of a range of knowledge systems from grammar, music, medicine, agriculture etc. In the world of medicine they have a corpus of large medical manuscripts and texts and scholars trained in disciplines of Ayurveda and Siddha. At the same time there is a large number of folk practitioners in the form of herbalists, traditional birth attendants, dasis and rich knowledge in the community about properties of food, adaptation of food and regimens to suit various seasons etc. Ayurvedic texts also acknowledge and accept knowledge of medical practices and herbs with the common folk. In fact, it can be seen that there are plenty of innovations still in the field that we witness in various areas such as medicine, agriculture and the use of materials.

This has important implications for the way in which we should conserve and carry out research. The research in India has an important role to reestablish the symbiotic links that traditionally our scholars have had with the lay practitioners. This approach would indeed set a new direction for research in India.

REFERENCES

Man the hunters by R. B. Lee and I. Devore (Aldine, Chicago) 1968
Socio-biological investigations among the Nandivallas of Maharashtra by K. C. Malhotra bulletin Urgent Anthr. Ethno-Science (austria) 16 (1974) 63-102.
Ecology of a Pastoral caste Gavli Dhangers of Peninsular India by M. Gadgil and K. C. Malhotra, Human Ecology 10 (1982) 107 - 43
The Struggle for Existence by G. D. Gause (Hafner, New York) 1934
Sacred Groves of Maharashtra: an Inventory by M. Gadgil and D. Vartak in Glimpses of Indian Ethnobotany (Ed) S. K. Jain (Oxford University Press, Bombay), 1981 PP.211-204.
Sacred Groves of the Western Ghats in India by M. Gadgil and V. D.Vartak, Economic Botany 30 (1976) 1520160
Kunstlaria Prain; - a new genus record for India and a new species for the genus by C. N. Mohanan and N. C. Nair. Proc. Ind. Acad. Science B 19 (1981) 207 -210
The Holy Turtle of Bangladesh by Reza Khan Hornhill 4 (1980 7-11)
Primitive Religion of India by H. H. Presler (christian Literature society, Madras) 1971
Food Web Organisation and the conservation of new tropical diversity of L. E. Gilbert in "Conservation Biology" (Ed). M.E. Soule and b. a. Wilax (Sinuauer, Sunderland, Massachusets) 1980 pp.11-33
Human-Animal interactions in the Rajasthan Desert by Ishwar Prakash and P. K. Ghosh Journal of Bombay Natural History society 75 (Suppl) (1980) 1259-61
Rice in abundance for all times through rice clones by R.H.Richaria (Bhopal) 1987 Chapter X P.100
Tamil Folk Sayings on Agriculture by A. V. Balasubramanian PPST Bulletin (S.No.9) (1986) 60-89
Traditional vs. Modern Agrikculture: Learning from a Sri Lankan Peasant PPST Bulletin Vol.3 No.2 (S.No.6) (1983) 6-17