373
buttermilk, cooked vegetables, kiddi made from graham flour, spices, sugar, breads
and a considerable amount of lentils.” They worship the thick-trunked khejare tree
(Prosopis cineraria), which is an abundantly high-protein bearing, flowering pea
family (Fabaceae) tree known as Ghaf. In 1730, a Maharaja near Jodhpur ordered
his troops to cut down a number of the trees for the wood. A Bishnoi mother and her
daughters gathered fellow disciples of Jambheshwar together to protect the sacred
trees; 363 of them were killed. In the late 1980s these martyrs were commemorated
by the Indian government as the nation’s first official environmental heroes, precursors of the famed Himalayan “Chipko Movement”—tree huggers.
42
The enormously complex tapestry of religious tenets, ethical mores, and living
realities in India, as she fast surpasses 1.35 billion residents—the country is easily
poised to exceed China’s approximately 1.4 billion people—presents a dizzying,
joyous but often painful human and other animal rights portrait. We have been conducting various research projects in India for many decades. But on every visit there
has been an overwhelming sensation that is both familiar and altogether novel. India
and her native flora and fauna never cease to amaze, but the challenges of conservation are escalating at a bewildering pace. In the winter of 2019 we set out with our
long-time colleagues, Tarun (Dr. Chhabra) and his close friend, Ramneek Singh, to
visit what may be one of the oldest structures still standing and revered in all of
India, the Toda conical dairy temple of Konawsh.
41.8 Konawsh
Its form, and the site where it remains, may date back 9000 years, although there is
no proof, as yet, of that. Tarun and Ramneek formed the Edhkwehlynawd Botanical
Refuge (EBR—“place with a spectacular view” in Toda) in 1992, a local nonprofit
Trust devoted to preserving the Toda lifestyle and habitat, and helping the Todas to
cope progressively with the onrush of the twenty-first century.
43
Supporting and
helping to sustain Toda deep ecological knowledge; providing educational opportunities for the youth; and bridging gaps like electrification, clean water, habitat restoration, dairy temple maintenance (re-thatching as needed), sustainable income
generation, and legal protections for their tribal lands are all clear mandates. What
is less predictable or controllable, however, is the welfare in perpetuity of a species—the Toda buffaloes—who are at great risk. Their numbers are fast declining,
and the ability of the Toda to maintain sacred herds, perpetuate their dairy rituals
and thus the rudiments of their entire cosmological presence as a society in the
Nilgiris, is endangered. Write Tarun and Ramneek, “Today, the herd size of both
sacred and domestic buffaloes has shrunk dramatically and if immediate steps are
42 See “Desert Survival by the Book,” by M.C. Tobias, New Scientist, Vol. 120, No. 1643, December
17, 1988, p. 29. See also, op cit., “The Anthropology of Conscience,” by M. Tobias, Society &
Animals, Volume 4, Issue 1, The White Horse Press, Cambridge, UK, 1996.
43 www.ebr.org.in
41.8 Konawsh
buttermilk, cooked vegetables, kiddi made from graham flour, spices, sugar, breads
and a considerable amount of lentils.” They worship the thick-trunked khejare tree
(Prosopis cineraria), which is an abundantly high-protein bearing, flowering pea
family (Fabaceae) tree known as Ghaf. In 1730, a Maharaja near Jodhpur ordered
his troops to cut down a number of the trees for the wood. A Bishnoi mother and her
daughters gathered fellow disciples of Jambheshwar together to protect the sacred
trees; 363 of them were killed. In the late 1980s these martyrs were commemorated
by the Indian government as the nation’s first official environmental heroes, precursors of the famed Himalayan “Chipko Movement”—tree huggers.
42
The enormously complex tapestry of religious tenets, ethical mores, and living
realities in India, as she fast surpasses 1.35 billion residents—the country is easily
poised to exceed China’s approximately 1.4 billion people—presents a dizzying,
joyous but often painful human and other animal rights portrait. We have been conducting various research projects in India for many decades. But on every visit there
has been an overwhelming sensation that is both familiar and altogether novel. India
and her native flora and fauna never cease to amaze, but the challenges of conservation are escalating at a bewildering pace. In the winter of 2019 we set out with our
long-time colleagues, Tarun (Dr. Chhabra) and his close friend, Ramneek Singh, to
visit what may be one of the oldest structures still standing and revered in all of
India, the Toda conical dairy temple of Konawsh.
41.8 Konawsh
Its form, and the site where it remains, may date back 9000 years, although there is
no proof, as yet, of that. Tarun and Ramneek formed the Edhkwehlynawd Botanical
Refuge (EBR—“place with a spectacular view” in Toda) in 1992, a local nonprofit
Trust devoted to preserving the Toda lifestyle and habitat, and helping the Todas to
cope progressively with the onrush of the twenty-first century.
43
Supporting and
helping to sustain Toda deep ecological knowledge; providing educational opportunities for the youth; and bridging gaps like electrification, clean water, habitat restoration, dairy temple maintenance (re-thatching as needed), sustainable income
generation, and legal protections for their tribal lands are all clear mandates. What
is less predictable or controllable, however, is the welfare in perpetuity of a species—the Toda buffaloes—who are at great risk. Their numbers are fast declining,
and the ability of the Toda to maintain sacred herds, perpetuate their dairy rituals
and thus the rudiments of their entire cosmological presence as a society in the
Nilgiris, is endangered. Write Tarun and Ramneek, “Today, the herd size of both
sacred and domestic buffaloes has shrunk dramatically and if immediate steps are
42 See “Desert Survival by the Book,” by M.C. Tobias, New Scientist, Vol. 120, No. 1643, December
17, 1988, p. 29. See also, op cit., “The Anthropology of Conscience,” by M. Tobias, Society &
Animals, Volume 4, Issue 1, The White Horse Press, Cambridge, UK, 1996.
43 www.ebr.org.in
41.8 Konawsh