The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands that were leveled under British rule — areas to be reforested, rather than conserved. But a recent analysis of stories, songs, and poems from centuries past reveals that western grasslands predate British colonization.
The new research looks at the state of Maharashtra, home to nearly 15,000 square miles of grasslands that are, in the judgment of the Indian government, “wastelands.” Experts, however, note these grasslands are home to all manner of native wildlife and say the government should reconsider its designation. In a letter published in Science last year, researchers called for investigating the origin of grasslands to better guide conservation efforts.
The new study seeks to fill this gap. For the research, scientists analyzed 28 literary excerpts set in Maharashtra from as far back as the 13th century. In total, they found 44 mentions of wild plants, most of which would be at home on the savanna.
For instance, researchers counted eight references to the White Bark Acacia, which is typical in Maharashtra today. “It’s a pretty iconic tree in the region, and it was common at that time also,” said lead author Ashish Nerlekar, of Michigan State University.
In addition to finding dozens of references to native plants, researchers also note how songs and stories depict a broad, open terrain. In the 16th-century epic poem “Adi Parva,” cow herders are drawn to the “empty” landscape and abundant grasses of the region.
Other research, based on fossilized pollen grains, has shown that the plants growing in western India thousands of years ago were typical of savannas, not forests. The new study, published in the journal People and Nature, provides further evidence that western grasslands predate the destruction of forests perpetrated under British rule.
“The take-home for me is how little things have changed,” Nerlekar said. “It’s fascinating that something hundreds of years old could so closely match what is around today and contrast so much with what people romanticize the past landscape to be.”
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