Sacred groves in the Indian state of Odisha continue to be protected now, as they have for hundreds of years because of cultural and spiritual values associated with them, a recent study has found. However, the forests are decreasing in size, nearly all residents interviewed by researchers said. India is estimated to have roughly 100,000 sacred groves, the most of any country. The state of Odisha in the Eastern Ghats, a mountain range in India’s eastern coast, has more than 2,000 such groves, but they are poorly understood, the authors wrote. So, the research team interviewed 148 people living around 10 sacred groves in the state’s Mayurbhanj district to understand how they perceive the customs, uses, rules and traditions associated with those forests. Although the Santals, one of the largest tribal groups in India, dominate Mayurbhanj, the interviewees represented a diverse mix of “tribal or caste groups, including Santals, Gonds, Kolhas, Bhuyans, Gauda, Bathudi, Bhumij and Ho Munda,” the authors wrote. This suggests “that the sacred grove is a cultural concept that transcends not only ethnic groups but also other general communities in the district,” they added. The interviews revealed that the villages maintain and preserve the sacred groves as a form of worship for the forest god. Rules include no cutting trees in the groves or extracting natural resources for commercial sale, the respondents said. At the same time, the interviewees said they use 28 different species of plants from the sacred groves “for medicinal and religious purposes.” They…This article was originally published on Mongabay