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Paper short abstract

Ongoing global warming displaces communities in India, making plants vital refuges. This paper proposes “vegetal havens,” where mangroves, sacred groves, and mythic vegetal traditions sustain life, resist anthropocentrism, and reimagine shelter, survival, and multispecies belonging.

Paper long abstract

Vegetal Haven: Reimagining Refuge through the Vegetal Mythology in India

Goutam Majhi, Assistant Professor, Department of English,

Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya (Affiliated to the University of Calcutta)

Ongoing global warming has caused rising sea levels, cyclones, and soil erosion, which have displaced many, particularly in coastal regions, creating a new category of climate refugees. As forced migration reshapes social and ecological landscapes, the search for refuge increasingly extends beyond human-built environments to the vegetal world. This paper proposes the concept of the “vegetal haven”—spaces where plants actively generate or sustain sanctuary for human and nonhuman life. Unlike metaphoric views of nature, vegetal havens foreground the agency of plants in fostering endurance, resilience, and cohabitation amid environmental and social disruption. In the Indian context, mangrove forests, sacred groves, agroecological systems, and urban green spaces emerge as vital vegetal havens. Set in Indigenous knowledge systems, ecological traditions, and vegetal mythology, these havens reconstitute cultural, spiritual, and ecological forms of refuge while challenging dominant anthropocentric notions of shelter and survival. Mythic traditions—from the kalpavriksha and Bodhi tree to Bonbibi’s mangroves in the Sundarbans—frame vegetation as divine protectors and custodians of refuge, embedding ecological ethics into cultural memory. By drawing on plant humanities, environmental studies, Indigenous epistemologies, and literary ecocriticism, this paper argues that vegetal havens reimagine refuge through nonhuman agency. This paper critically explores vegetal mythology in India to argue that vegetal havens challenge the dominant anthropocentric paradigms of shelter and survival.

Keywords: Vegetal Haven, Vegetal Mythology, Plant Humanities, Refuge, Anthropocene