Sacred Grove Kshireshwar: Atraditionally protected forest fragment in Dungarpur District of Rajasthan
Neeraj Kumar Shrimali* and Shafkat Rana**
*Department of Botany, S. G. G. Govt. College Banswara-327001 (India) Mail id : nirajkani81@gmail.com, s.rana@rediffmail.com
ABSTRACT
Sacred groves are a kind of nature worship in which certain plants or area (forest, hillock and certain water bodies) being protected due to some religious beliefs. It is generally prevalent in the areas, dominated by tribal community. Sacred places of tribal community are generally found on the top of isolated hillocks or near water sources. Areas having this all holly sites including hillock, vegetation, and water bodies are being protected by the local people because of religious beliefs. Kshireshwar is a temple dedicated to lord Shiva. It is situated on a hillock of Jogpur village, District Dungarpur Rajasthan. The hill is densely covered by Dhonk (Anogeissus pendula) trees along with Nilgiri (Eucalyptus) Neem (Azadirachtaindica) and Sagwan (Tectonagrandis) which provides a suitable habitat to several peacocks. Cutting of trees and hunting in this area is naturally prohibited because of the holiness of this temple and surrounding area. In this way sacred groves are means of in situ conservation of natural resources which ensure the availability of all the resources for future generation. Present paper deals with this particular sacred grove of district Dungarpur.