The ‘Sacred Grove festival’ commenced here on Tuesday at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS), which will continue till January 1. The chief guest of the inaugural function was KK Chakravarty, IAS (Chairman, lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi).
In course of time, the industrialisation and globalisation affected biodiversity and natural resources to great extent. In a view of the adverse effects of biodiversity degradation, ecologist, environmentalists etc has made conservation of biodiversity as on issue of global significance. Earlier there have many traditional conservation practices of indigenous communities which contributed to the conservation and protection of biodiversity-such practices were named as sacred groves.
Prof KC Malhotra explained the importance of sacred groves in our society since ancient times and told the history of sacred groves in Manav Sangrahalaya. While at the beginning SB Ota, Director of IGRMS delivered welcome address and at the end Arun Kiro, Assistant Curator, IGRMS proposed vote of thanks. Sudhir Shrivastava coordinated programme. This was followed by visit and reutilisation to Sacred Groves in the Sangrahalaya viz Kauv (Kerala), Kovikadu (Tamil Nadu), Sarana (Jharkhand).
After this, in the evening, cultural performances related to Sacred Groves were organised at indoor auditorium, Vethi Sankul, Manav Sangrahalaya. In this, the artists in colourful costume, aesthetic gestures and wide expression with various traditional musical instruments rendered the beautiful presentation of Baul and Chhau dance of West Bengal and Ghumura dance of Odisha.