The Concept of Sacred Linked to Biological Resource Management in the Himalayan Culture

Abstract

There is a wide recognition throughout the globe and across disciplines that regions of ecological prudence exhibit a symbiotic relationship between habitats and culture (Arizpe, 1996). This explicates that culture and environment are complementary in various stages of evolution. Traditional societies have co-evolved with their environment, modifying nature but actively maintaining it in a diverse and productive state based on their indigenous knowledge, socio-cultural practices and/or religious beliefs since antiquity (Gadgil and Berkes, 1991; Ramakrishnan, 1998). However, these traditional societies are no longer immune to the changes occurring in the world with time. The predominant culture of over-consumption of natural resources is making a dent into these societies, resulting in erosion of their time-tested and valued institutions. At present, when the social fragmentation reaches to the family level and individual interests get priority, the community functions take a back seat. Further, access to information is no more a limiting phenomenon in this era of information technology; as a result it has been observed that the heterogeneity of the culture that evolved in isolation is being increasingly homogenized (Robertsons, 1992). Such a distortion has been noted in the Himalayan societies too.