Sacred Groves and Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Sacred groves, patches of forest protected by local communities on religious and cultural grounds, represent one of the world's oldest forms of in-situ biodiversity conservation. India alone is estimated to contain well over 100,000 such groves, distributed across the Western Ghats, the Himalayan foothills, central India, and the northeastern hill states, where they persist as relict patches of native vegetation embedded within otherwise heavily modified agricultural and settled landscapes. This paper reviews the scientific literature on sacred groves as biodiversity conservation instruments, drawing on foundational ecological surveys, landscape-scale conservation biology research, and social-science studies of community governance published in peer-reviewed journals. The review synthesises evidence on the species richness and ecological functions of sacred groves, the cultural and institutional mechanisms, religious belief, taboo, and customary governance, that have sustained their protection over generations, and the mounting pressures of legal ambiguity, weakening social sanction, and land-use change that now threaten their persistence. The findings indicate that sacred groves function as genuine reservoirs of biodiversity, often harbouring species and vegetation types poorly represented in the formal protected area network, but that their long-term survival depends on the continued vitality of the belief systems and community institutions that created them, resources that are increasingly eroded by socio-economic transformation. The paper concludes that integrating sacred groves into formal conservation planning, while respecting the customary institutions that sustain them, offers a cost-effective and culturally grounded complement to India's protected area system.