Inherent Faith Runs Deep

In Jharkhand, sacred groves define social and cultural consciousness of tribal people.

- Deepanwita Gita Niyogi

It’s that time of the afternoon when the sun casts a golden glow and thousand rays exude a soft glimmer. After a hearty meal at a roadside dhaba in Jharkhand’s Torpa block, we proceed along a narrow, gravelly road towards the sarna sthal or sacred space of the Munda tribe. Two guides accompanying us request to quicken our steps so that we reach there before dusk. The entire Khunti district is conflict-hit where the People’s Liberation Front of India, a splinter group of the cpi-Maoist, rules the roost. About 10 minutes later, we reach a dense patch of sal (shorea robusta), mahua (Madhuca longifolia), peepal (Ficus religiosa), banyan (Ficus benghalensis) and several other tall, semideciduous trees on the outskirts of Salgadih village. “This grove, spread over a hectare, is our sarna,” says Sanika Munda, one of the guides and resident of Salgadih.

As we enter the grove, withered leaves and dried twigs snap under our feet breaking the heavy silence. I can faintly hear unknown species of birds chirping. A huge sal tree stands tall in the centre. Sanika says the tree could be over five century old and is worshipped to invoke Singh bonga, the Almighty. Orange mushrooms adorn its gnarled branches that cover the ground. Sanika warns us against lopping a branch or even plucking a leaf in the grove. “Last year, someone from the nearby Habodi village felled a tree inside the sarna. That night, a tiger carried away his cattle. Hurting a tree in the grove can also lead to diseases and death,” says Sanika, adding that the sarna at Salgadih has been there since the Mundas first settled there.