Sacred grove

Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 8 "How the Land Becomes Sacred"; Class 8, Ch 1 "Natural Resources and Their Use"; Class 10, Ch 2 "Forest and Wildlife Resources"

Meaning

A sacred grove is a patch of forest that a local community dedicates to a deity or an ancestral spirit, and so leaves untouched: no trees are cut and no animals are hunted. Sacred groves matter because they keep virgin forest (old, undisturbed forest), rare and endemic species and small water bodies alive. They show that faith-based rules made by communities can protect nature for centuries.

Explanation

How a sacred grove forms and works

• Cause: the belief that the land is holy
• People believe a god or spirit lives in the forest. In Khasi groves of Meghalaya, spirits such as Ryngkew or Basa are worshipped as guardian deities.

• This links to sacred ecology: people see land, rivers, mountains and trees as holy, so they protect them.

• Process: the community makes and follows its own rules

• No felling, no hunting and often no removing of wood or leaves.

• Breaking the rule is seen as a sin or as something that angers the deity. Fear and respect do the work of guards and fences.

• Result: an island of untouched forest

• Over time the grove becomes a store of old trees, rare plants and animals, and clean water.
• An official description calls sacred groves generally very small patches of trees that communities protect for religious and cultural reasons, and that help conserve local biodiversity [6].

What sacred groves preserve

• Virgin forest: old, undisturbed tree cover that has disappeared from the land around it.
• Rare and endemic species: endemic species are found only in that area.
• Small water bodies: springs, ponds and streams.
• Wildlife that helps the forest: in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), a grove's chronicle records the protection of fruit bats.
• The bats pollinate flowers and spread seeds.
• This helps the forest grow back.

Orans: the sacred groves of the desert

• "Oran" comes from the Sanskrit word aranya, meaning "undisturbed forest" [2].
• Rajasthan has about 25,000 orans covering about 6,00,000 ha. Of this, 5,37,000 ha lies in the western Thar region [2].
• Other local names are dev-van, rundh, deorai, malvan and mandir van (temple forest) [2].
• Common trees are khejri (Prosopis cineraria), ber (Zizyphus) and Salvadora [2].
• Water role: orans hold springs, ponds and baoris (stepwells), so they help harvest rainwater and recharge groundwater in the dry zone [2].

Threats and legal protection

• The threat: groves are shrinking because people encroach on them for farms, settlements and industry.
• The Supreme Court's directions (18 December 2024):
• Rajasthan must map every oran on the ground and by satellite, and classify them as "forest". Size does not matter. Their purpose and cultural value do [2].
• Where suitable, sacred groves should be declared community reserves under Section 36-C of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 [2].

• The MoEFCC should frame a nationwide policy on sacred groves and conduct a nationwide survey of them [2].

• Why a community reserve helps: once it is notified, the land use cannot change unless the reserve's management committee passes a resolution and the state government approves it [2].

Where it occurs

• Regional names (NCERT Class 7):

Name	Language / region	State
Kavu	Malayalam	Kerala
Kovilkadu	Tamil	Tamil Nadu
Devare kadu	Kannada	Karnataka
Devrai	Marathi	Maharashtra
Khlaw kyntang	Khasi	Meghalaya
Dev van	—	Himachal Pradesh
Sarna	—	Jharkhand
Devgudi	—	Chhattisgarh
Oran	—	Rajasthan

• Mawphlang: a famous Khasi sacred grove near Shillong, Meghalaya.
• Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu: a grove whose chronicle records the protection of fruit bats.
• Thar region, western Rajasthan: most of the oran area, 5,37,000 ha [2].
• Related sacred landscapes:
• Sikkim notified sacred mountains, caves, lakes, rocks and hot springs for protection in the early 2000s.
• The Todas of the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu) treat peaks, sholas and wetlands as sacred.

• The Niyamgiri hills (Rayagada and Kalahandi, Odisha) are sacred to the Dongria Kondh, who forbid felling trees there.

• World: the same idea of sacred nature is behind New Zealand's Whanganui River law (2017). It declared the river a legal person, with guardians from the Māori iwi (tribe) and the State acting for it [5].

Don't confuse with

• Bhairodev Dakav Sonchuri: a people's sanctuary declared by 5 villages of Alwar, Rajasthan (1,200 ha) under rules they made themselves. It is not based on a deity, while a sacred grove is protected through religious belief.
• Community reserve: a legal category under Section 36-C of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, notified by the state government [2]. A sacred grove is a traditional institution, and it becomes a community reserve only if it is notified.
• Joint Forest Management (JFM): the forest department and villagers jointly protect degraded forest, and villagers get a share of the produce. A sacred grove is old forest that is left untouched, with no harvesting.
• Shola: a natural forest type (patches of stunted evergreen forest in the valleys of the high Western Ghats, set among grasslands). It is defined by climate and terrain, not by worship, though the Todas treat sholas as sacred.

Prelims Hooks

• Kavu = Kerala; kovilkadu = Tamil Nadu; devare kadu = Karnataka; devrai = Maharashtra.
• Khlaw kyntang = Meghalaya (Khasi); sarna = Jharkhand; devgudi = Chhattisgarh; oran = Rajasthan; dev van = Himachal Pradesh.
• Mawphlang, a famous sacred grove, is near Shillong, Meghalaya.
• "Oran" comes from Sanskrit aranya (undisturbed forest). Rajasthan has about 25,000 orans covering about 6,00,000 ha [2].
• Trap: the Supreme Court judgment of 18 December 2024 asked for orans to be classified as "forest" whatever their size, and for groves to become community reserves under Section 36-C [2].
• Community reserves are a legal category under Section 36-C. India has 220 of them (2026) [3].

Mains Points

• Sacred groves as community conservation (GS-III):
• They protect virgin forest, endemic species and water sources at almost no cost to the state, because local belief does the policing.

• Orans hold springs, ponds and baoris, so they recharge groundwater in the Thar [2]. This links biodiversity to water security in dry regions.

• Threat and policy response:

• Groves are shrinking under encroachment for farms, settlements and industry.
• The Supreme Court's 2024 directions (satellite mapping, "forest" status, community reserves under Section 36-C, a national policy and a national survey) give them legal protection that does not depend on belief alone [2].

• Biodiversity Management Committees can record groves in People's Biodiversity Registers. India has more than 2,72,648 PBRs (2026) [4].

• Limits of reverence alone: sacred status has not saved the Yamuna, Mahanadi and Kaveri from pollution. Groves need legal backing and community rights (FRA 2006 Gram Sabha powers under Section 5 [2]) along with tradition. Niyamgiri (2013), where all 12 Gram Sabhas rejected bauxite mining on a sacred hill, shows the two working together.

Related concepts

• Community participation in conservation
• Bhairodev Dakav Sonchuri
• Beej Bachao Andolan
• Navdanya
• Bishnoi community
• Niyamgiri Hills
• Rights of nature

Read more

• Community conservation and sacred ecology