The Practice of Sacred Groves in North East India
A paper by R. S Tripathi on the Sacred Groves of the North East states that declaring a patch of forest near the villages as sacred and protecting it on the grounds of religious and cultural beliefs is an age old practice with the tribal communities in the north-eastern hill region of India. There are a large number of sacred groves in the states of Meghalaya, Manipur and Karbi-Anglong area of Assam. These are among the few least disturbed forest patches in the region serving as the original treasure house of biodiversity.