• Recently Jharkhand’s CM penned a letter to PM urging the acknowledgment of the ‘Sarna’ religious practices among tribal communities.
• He highlighted that the tribal population in the state has decreased from 38 percent to 26 percent over the past eight decades.

ABOUT SARNA FAITH

• Followers of Sarna faith regard themselves as belonging to a distinct religious group, and are nature worshippers.
• The holy grail of the Sarna faith is “Jal (water), Jungle (forest), Zameen (land)” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
• Believers of Sarna faith do not practice idol worship, nor do they adhere to the concept of the Varna system, heaven-hell, etc.
• The followers are largely concentrated in the tribal belt states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.
• Several surveys and reports have indicated that over 50 lakhs tribal people in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.