INDIA: Zoroastrians Establish Sacred Baval Tree Groves
The Zoroastrians celebrated joining ARC in 2000 by
presenting a Sacred Gift that symbolises the very heart
of this ancient religion.
The sacred fire
that burns perpetually in Zoroastrian fire temples is
fuelled exclusively by the wood of the baval tree.
Currently this wood is bought on the open market. With
the Sacred Gift, the Zoroastrians of India (also called
Parsis) commited to buying baval wood from sustainable
sources - established by the Zoroastrian community.
In 2000, setting themselves a 15-year
target, they began by buying land and reforesting it,
creating tree nurseries and assessing the amount of land
needed to provide all their sacred fuel. In 2001 they
also agreed to create nature reserves on the land in
order to contribute to biodiversity.
Zoroastrians
believe in a cosmic struggle between good and evil. In
this religious tradition, the way that an individual
responds to the threat posed to the world by pollution
shows whether he or she is allied with good or evil
cosmic forces.
The Sacred Gift was the first
of a proposed series of environmental actions arising
from the Zoroastrians’ membership in ARC. New
initiatives launched in 2001 and 2002 included
sponsoring the breeding of vultures (because there are
no longer enough of these birds in India to dispose of
human bodies in the traditional Zoroastrian style) and
building sustainable traditional housing, focusing
especially on the reduction in energy use.
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