Sacred groves in northern Western Ghats face highest human pressure, study finds

Sacred groves in India’s northern Western Ghats are the most disturbed forest regimes due to human activity, a new study has found.

Sacred groves — a form of nature worship — are traditionally community-conserved forest patches protected through social and cultural norms. Despite facing intense pressure, the study found that these groves remain ecologically indispensable, serving as critical refuges for mature, old-growth trees. Scientists say this underlines their continued importance for environmental conservation.

Researchers noted that while multiple studies have examined the Western Ghats — a global biodiversity hotspot — its high levels of endemism are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures and the loss of primary forests.

They said the Western Ghats has been assessed in terms of individual forest regimes, species composition, diversity and socio-ecological drivers. However, the northern Western Ghats (NWG) is climatically, geologically and geographically distinct, and faces particularly intense fragmentation and human pressure.

Why the northern Western Ghats stand apart

The researchers focused on forests in the northern Western Ghats and the Konkan region, stretching nearly 750 kilometres and comprising about one-third of the Western Ghats. The northern boundary of the NWG is marked by the Tapti River in Gujarat, while the southern boundary is the Kali River in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.

This is the first comprehensive study to compare different forest protection regimes — sacred groves, state-managed Reserve Forests, Protected Areas, and private forests such as coffee plantations and silviculture — in terms of woody plant diversity, species composition and forest structure.

The study recorded species richness, individual abundance, girth at breast height (GBH), basal area and a Combined Disturbance Index (CDI), which measures the number and intensity of disturbances in a given area.

Comparing protection regimes across the landscape

Researchers identified eight types of anthropogenic disturbance across all forest transects: cutting, lopping (pruning branches for fodder and fuel), fire, grazing, construction, internal pathways, other human activities such as festivals and tourism, and proximity to roads.

Across all protection regimes, the study documented 3,360 woody plants representing 148 species, 118 genera and 43 families. Sacred groves showed the highest levels of disturbance, with an average CDI of 47.75, followed by private forests with an average CDI of 34.5.

Reserve forests and protected areas recorded lower disturbance levels, with average CDI values of 31.5 and 17.5 respectively.

“This pressure alters species composition, biodiversity, biomass, carbon stocks, and forest cover over time, even within protected landscape,” the authors noted. 

Long protected by socio-cultural norms, sacred groves are now increasingly threatened by urbanisation and the weakening of traditional practices. The study notes that significant loss of sacred groves in the northern Western Ghats has been reported over the past five decades, along with declines in associated biodiversity and above-ground biomass. Despite these pressures, the findings reaffirm that sacred groves continue to harbour unique and ecologically significant species, particularly endemic species and large, mature trees.

Human activities driving forest stress

Fire, livestock grazing and human activities linked to tourism and religious festivals were found to contribute substantially to cumulative disturbance levels.

However, the low abundance of younger trees in sacred groves and private forests highlights the need to better understand regeneration constraints and to manage disturbances more effectively, the study observed.

Historically, sacred groves were protected through local taboos and nature worship. The decline of these traditional practices has made many such areas more vulnerable to human intervention.

The study found that 50 per cent of species were shared across all four forest regimes. Reserve forests supported the highest species richness, with 89 species, and also recorded the greatest number of evergreen and endemic species.

These forests were characterised by high tree density, particularly in the smallest girth class (30-60 centimetres), indicating strong regeneration and recruitment dynamics.

Protected Areas — including national parks and wildlife sanctuaries — similarly maintained high tree densities and younger, early-successional communities, while also retaining pockets of old-growth vegetation in less-disturbed zones.

Private forests were found to be the most degraded among non-state regimes, recording the lowest basal area and tree density. These forests faced high disturbance levels and were frequently impacted by active or historical logging. They were dominated by deciduous species and had the lowest representation of evergreen trees.

However, the study noted that private forests offer significant potential for targeted restoration if human disturbance is reduced and evergreen species are reintroduced.

“The collective evidence from this study points to the complementary conservation roles played by all four protection regimes. While species composition is relatively shared, each regime contributes uniquely to forest structure, disturbance dynamics, and species persistence,” it said.

By way of example, the study noted that sacred groves support mature tree populations and structurally complex forests even under high disturbance, while protected areas and reserve forests maintain higher tree densities and show stronger regeneration. The researchers concluded that biodiversity and forest structure in the northern Western Ghats cannot be represented by any single protection regime.

“Rather, their conservation value lies in the mosaic of management systems,” the study said. “Sustaining this landscape requires recognising the ecological roles of all forest types and implementing regime-specific strategies for disturbance regulation, community participation and restoration to safeguard endemic species, ecosystem functions and long-term resilience.”