Sacred groves of India

While many of the groves are looked upon as abodes of Hindu deities, in the recent past a number of them have been partially cleared for construction of shrines and temples.

[3][4] Sacred groves are places of yatra (pilgrimage) in Indian-origin religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

Indian sacred groves are often associated with temples, monasteries, shrines, pilgrimage sites, or with burial grounds.

[5] Sacred groves may be loosely used to refer to natural habitat protected on religious grounds.

In modern times, sacred groves have become biodiversity hotspots, as various species seek refuge in the areas due to progressive habitat destruction and hunting elsewhere.

Besides this, sacred groves in urban landscapes act as "lungs" to the city as well, providing much needed vegetation cover.

Ritualistic dances and dramatizations based on the local deities that protect the groves are called Theyyam in Kerala and Nagmandalam, among other names, in Karnataka.

From the former, people would collect dry wood, leaves, forest produce and a limited amount of timber, though natural ecosystem would not be unnecessarily disturbed.

[8] Vrukshayurveda, the science of plant life and also a 10th-century treatise of that title on the subject ascribed to Surapala, dealt with various species of trees and their growth.

[9] The Gurjar people of Rajasthan have a unique practice of neem (Azadirachta indica) planting and worshipping as abode of God Devnarayan.

[10] Similarly Mangar Bani, last surviving natural forest of Delhi is protected by Gurjars of nearby area.

Seeing the importance of sacred groves and other sacred natural sites in having conserved biodiversity all across the Himalayas, the intergovernmental organization ICIMOD developed and published a framework in 2016, to assess the present day significance of such sites for their integration into formal conservation and development frameworks.

[15] more than 500 " Jaherthan" in Godda of Jharkhand (Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigarh, Kolhapur Sindhudurg, Ahmednagar, Thane districts) Dudley et al.[17] TNBB document [31] Threats to the grove include urbanization, over-exploitation of resources (like overgrazing and excessive firewood collection), and environmental destruction due to religious practices.