Sacred Groves

Sacred groves are communally-protected forest fragments with significant religious connotations. These community lands attain significance due to biodiversity conservation and provide ecological services in

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Conservation of Deo-rahati (sacred groves) in India has ancient roots from Vedic period. Even in modern days ethnic groups conserve religiously preserved forest patches through their customs, taboos and local festivals associated with the deities. Therefore, these forest pockets serve the vital function of conserving biological diversity and natural water streams.

An attempt has been made to identify folklore medicinally important plants frequently used by rural communities of sacred groves and it environs of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. A total of 34 medicinal plants from 33 genera under 29 families were enumerated. Most of the plants are used for curing earache, skin diseases, fever, cold, headache, cough, urinary disorder, ulcer, etc.

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Arunachal Pradesh, being a largest state of Northeast India, harbours great number of plant species which are endemic to region. The diversity and endemism of state has kept it in the category of biodiversity hot-spot. Though, in recent past, numbers of plant species are being listed as rare, endangered and threatened because of increasing threats from anthropogenic and other natural factors.

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Sacred groves are (small or large) patches of vegetation of varying sizes, conserved on the basis of the religious beliefs of the community. In India 13,720 sacred groves have been identified from 19 states and named differently in various parts of India as Law lyngdhoh in Meghalaya, Kovil Kadu in Kanyakumari, Dev Bhumi in Uttarakhand, etc.

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On a global scale, the existing Sacred Groves (SGs) follow ancestral worship on conservation in forest patches. SGs are distributed over a wide ecosystem and help in conservation of rare and endemic species. Well preserved SGs are store houses of biological, ecological, medicinal, ethno-cultural and religious values.