Forests, folklores and religion: understanding embedded ‘ecological wisdom’ in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, India.

Sen, Amrita (2024) Forests, folklores and religion: understanding embedded ‘ecological wisdom’ in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, India. In: Environmental and Ecological Sustainability Through Indigenous Traditions: Perspectives from the Global South. Springer Nature Singapore, Singapore, pp. 95-109. ISBN 978-981-19-7079-5

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Abstract

Traditional ecological knowledge has been appreciated as being effective and resilient for forest management. It has been systemically pointed out that communities with native ecological knowledge not only utilize natural resources for livelihoods but also conserve them sustainably. This is a paper centered on a situated and rather idiosyncratic form of ecological knowledge which can be traced through an embodied socio-religious practice informing local use, access and conservation of forests in the Indian Sundarbans. The paper explores subtle nuances of the practice of worshipping Bonbibi, popularly known as the ‘forest goddess’, who safeguards forest communities from tiger attacks and protects the forests from exploitation. The objective of this paper is to explore the ideals of ecological resilience and wisdom, which encompass a relatively younger body of religious rituals. Ecological wisdom is commonly defined as a form of stewardship of natural resources, which can be acquired through multi-generational and stable attachments to the local ecologies and places. However, this article argues against any representative and standardized form of ecological wisdom, which necessitates a protracted native attachment to ecological landscapes. To this end, the paper provides a careful analysis of the origin and evolution of the worship of Bonbibi in Sundarbans and argues how the practice, is robust in its attributes of ecological wisdom.

Item Type:	Book Section
Authors:	Sen, Amrita
Editors:	Editors Email ORCID Pattnaik, Binay Kumar UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Religion Natural Sciences > Life sciences; biology > Ecology History & geography > History of Asia > India and neighboring south Asian countries
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Arts and Sciences
Full Text Status:	None
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/6950
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7079-5_3

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