A herd of goats makes its way through a stubbly, dry grassland to a hilly grove. As they get closer, the air becomes noticeably cooler, the vegetation denser, the grass greener. A couple of buffalo wallow in a shallow pool of water, and beyond, a forest path leads to a giant old ficus. From the tree’s roots, a little stream emerges, its peaceful gurgling punctuated with the plopping sound of ripe figs falling into the water. This is one of India's sacred groves.

“Baba himself looks after this forest and this stream,” says Bhawani Shankar, the custodian of this forest and the shrine of chud sidh which lies at the center of this one of India's sacred groves. “Its water is so life-giving that my hair has grown to my ankles ever since I came here … years ago.” Twirling his matted locks into a bun larger than his head, he scatters seed for peacocks on a feeding platform in this one of India's sacred groves. “Nothing good has come to anyone who dares to cut wood from this forest. The last man who cut an ancient tree here to build his house lost everything in a fire that somehow only left the beam he’d made from the tree unscathed.”

This forest is Adaval ki Devbani in Alwar, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. Devbani literally means “sacred grove,” and the state has an estimated 25,000 of India's sacred groves. Sometimes they are also known as orans, or places where land, water, jungle and people coexist peacefully. Over centuries sacred groves have existed, not just in India but across the globe, as commons land, used by neighboring villages as pastures and places to collect fallen wood, medicinal herbs, honey and forest fruit. Deeply held spiritual beliefs ensure that trees and animals are protected within their boundaries, making them treasure troves for naturalists and the last refuge for a variety of indigenous species. In the desert state of Rajasthan, devbanis and orans, India's sacred groves, also have within them bodies of water that humans and animals use.

But with changing lifestyles and land use patterns, the little pockets of biodiversity provided by India's sacred groves have been in a state of continuous decline. During the British colonial period, the revenue department  declared many of them ghair mumkin zameen, or uncultivable land that was not taxed. This made them fair game for encroachments, mining, land grabs and worse. Since Indian Independence in 1947, they have continued to face pressure from farming, construction, mining and more.

Read the full article about India's sacred groves by Geetanjali Krishna at Reasons to Be Cheerful.