Religious-Cultural framework for sustaining environmental balance in rural ecosystems: stewardship of village-temples in Tamil Nadu, India

A primary reason for rural settlements to score better on the environmental quality is that the environmental practices in rural areas are often intertwined with traditional knowledge systems and environmental values and beliefs promoted through temple-traditions. This situation, however, is changing as urban forces transform rural landscapes and consequently impact socio-spatial and cultural fabric. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how religious and cultural activities anchored around temples contribute towards pro-environmental behaviour in maintaining ecological balance. We examine the notion of environmental stewardship as known from the indigenous literature and use that as a basis to analyse findings from an empirical study of a coastal village located in southern India. The qualitative ethnographic approach includes cultural mapping of ecologically significant features including sacred trees, vegetations, landforms, and water bodies using Transect walks; preparing a cultural calendar that indicates how festivals are aligned with agricultural practices and climatic patterns; and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to gain insights into local customs and traditions around ecological stewardship. Thematic analysis suggests that three core values underpin the connections between cultural and environmental practices: (a) Dama – self-control and sustainable consumption, (b) Dāna – generosity and resource sharing, and (c) Dayā – compassion and interconnectedness. We argue that these three concepts form a religious-cultural framework that can significantly contribute to a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in rural ecosystems and through which traditional values could be re-integrated in modifying environmental behaviours.