Sacred Groves – These are forests that are traditionally conserved by local communities in the name of some local deity. It was believed that extracting wood, or even flowers from a Grove will be disastrous & community will be punished by God. This belief has actually saved few forest patches & we can see a lot of diversity of flora & fauna. Often, these groves have a perennial source of water on which the community depends.

Sacred groves are identified by different local names in different parts of India: kavu in Kerala; devarabana, devarakadu, nagbana in Karnataka; kovilkadu in Tamil Nadu; devarai or devarahati in Maharashtra; in central and eastern India they are jaherthan or sarana; deovan in western India and Himalayan States; in the north-eastern States the names differ from tribe to tribe. Sacred grove is the only biodiversity-related cultural phenomenon cutting across the length and breadth of India.

These groves are now visited by researchers as they are like live museums of rare biodiversity & a reference of how the forest vegetation was before large scale destruction. Our ancestors have very thoughtfully created such practices that must be respected & taken forward.