By Ashish N. Nerlekar, and Digvijay Patil
We have limited knowledge about the ecological histories of many ecosystems of the world. This hinders progress on present and future ecosystem conservation. One such ecosystem about which we lack historical knowledge is tropical savannas, which are home to high biodiversity and support livelihoods of millions. Despite emerging scientific evidence suggesting their antiquity, there is a misconception that all tropical savannas are products of anthropogenic deforestation and this misconception still dominates the public and policy sphere. Clearly, because of the high stakes involved, clarifying and promoting an accurate ecological history of tropical savannas is a time-sensitive issue in need of new, culturally resonant lines of evidence.
In this work, we utilize nature descriptions in traditional literature to triangulate the ecological history of tropical savannas in western Maharashtra, India. To that end, we reviewed several forms of traditional literature: biographies, myths, narrative poems and folk songs composed in Marathi language and dated between 13th-20th century CE to identify 28 relevant excerpts. Our ecological reconstructions from traditional literature complement data from archival paintings, revenue-records, plant and animal fossils and dated molecular phylogenies of endemic biodiversity—all attesting the antiquity of India’s savannas.
We suggest that reframing biodiversity conservation initiatives in tropical savannas by explicitly valuing traditional literature as archives of biocultural histories could catalyze the conservation of both nature and culture.
Relational Thinking 