The lens “Blue”, “Green”, “People” and “Biodiversity” each relate to resilience through water harvesting, planting native species that attract biodiversity and creating a ghat edge reminiscent of a temple pond.
Garden Entrance Image courtesy : Samuel Benoit
“DEVRAI” - A SACRED FOREST
WINNING ENTRY, OPEN COMPETITION IN FRANCE.
Status : Complete
Site : Domain-de-Chaumont-sur-Loire, France
Area: 1900 sq ft
Scope : Public Landscape Design
Landscape Architecture : Sejpal and Parekh Associates
Year of construction : March, 2023
The 2023 edition of the International Garden festival has a theme of “Resilient Garden”. In this open competition the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, selected entrees which best spoke about the effect of the excesses of the Anthropocene on the environment as a modern day challenge faced by the living world. Sejpal and Parekh Associates participated and was delighted to build the garden named “Devrai, - A Sacred forest” in France, in the Loire Valley.
Historically, various regions of India have sacred forests which are protected by rural communities and called by numerous names across states eg, Devrai, Devban, Kavu, Devbani and Gumpa Forest. Devrai is the local name of these forests in Maharashtra, which the garden derives it’s concept from. These are held in high religious esteem and act as venues for age-old traditional rituals passed down through generations through cultural practises and mythological stories. Tribal communities are usually dedicated to one of the following, the goddess of the forest, spirits, demons or their ancestors which the forests are the abode of. In old villages, temples and tanks are often located in contiguity with sacred forests, recognising the role they have in securing and distributing water resources for irrigation and ground water recharge. Therefore, these biodiverse tracts of virgin forest land remain protected and become a safe haven for native plant species, rich nutritious soil and unpolluted water.
To date, these communities continue to depend on these forests for their daily life for food, fodder, wood, fruits, water and medicinal plants whilst understanding the thin line between use and misuse – a skill and way of thinking weakened in modern times. Hunting and logging is prohibited in these lands, which helps in wildlife conservation of vulnerable species, and in-turn protecting the gene pool. These are a means of subsistence for tribals who are mindful of the land’s capacities for renewal, and only take the surplus it may provide – a genuinely resilient practice – the theme of the 2023 Edition of the International Garden Competition.
Taking cues from this traditional Indian practise, a design was woven in a small 1900 sq ft land parcel allotted by the Domain. This was manifested through various elements, symbolic in nature to narrate a symbiotic relationship between people and the environment.