Sacred groves and sacred ecology

Nature as sacred space

Hindu traditions and many folk and tribal belief systems see the divine in all of nature. Particular mountains, rivers and forests are worshipped, many rivers are regarded as goddesses, and some trees, plants and animals are especially holy; in the end the whole Earth is Bhudevi, Mother Earth. For the Dongria Khond, the Niyam Dongar hill in Odisha’s Niyamgiri Range is the home of Niyam Raja, who provides all they need, and cutting its trees is forbidden. In the early 2000s Sikkim listed the caves, lakes, hot springs, rocks and peaks it held sacred, for protection, and the Todas of the Nilgiris hold peaks, plants, Shola forests, wetlands and even single stones sacred. Since tirthas usually lie by rivers and lakes, in forests or on mountains, the landscape is a sacred space, a punyakshetra, and this outlook has helped protect nature.

Rivers and sangams

People in India have worshipped rivers ever since the Vedic age. The nadistuti sukta of the Rigveda praises 19 major rivers of ancient north-west India, and even today many water rituals call on the Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri to be present in the water. These rivers have been lifelines of Indian civilisation, so the places where they rise, the streams that join them and the towns on their banks draw pilgrims too, and people speak of them with respect as ‘Ganga ji’ or ‘Yamuna ji’. Confluences, or sangams, are especially sacred: Prayag stands where the Ganga, Yamuna and unseen Sarasvati meet.

The Kumbh Mela

In the legend of the churning of the ocean, the devas and asuras worked together for once to obtain amrita, the nectar of immortality. Vishnu, as Mohini, snatched away the pitcher, or kumbha, and a few drops fell at Haridwar, Prayagraj, Nashik and Ujjain. The Kumbh Mela is held at these places, where a dip at the right time is considered most auspicious. UNESCO lists it as intangible cultural heritage, and about 660 million people took part in 2025.

Mountains and the peepul tree

Across the world, mountains carry legends of gods and heroes, and their height makes them seem like gateways to heaven. That is why so many Indian tirthas, from Mount Kailash to Vaishno Devi, the Tirumala hills and Tiruvannamalai, sit on heights reached by hard trails. Trees are revered too, often decorated with turmeric and kumkum. The peepul, or Ficus religiosa, is holy for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains alike; the tree at Bodh Gaya is said to descend from the one under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, and peepul leaves appear on a seal from Mohenjo-daro.

Sacred groves

Over time, many rural and tribal communities chose to protect certain natural forests from hunting, tree felling and mining, seeing them as the homes of deities, such as Ryngkew or Basa in Meghalaya. These sacred groves shelter rich plant and animal life, and many hold small ponds that help conserve water. They have many names: kavu in Malayalam, kovilkadu in Tamil, devare kadu in Kannada, devarai in Marathi, khlaw kyntang in Khasi, dev van in Himachal Pradesh, sarna in Jharkhand, devgudi in Chhattisgarh and oran in Rajasthan. In Thanjavur district, a local chronicle says the grove deities protect fruit bats, whose sighting is lucky, and the bats in turn pollinate flowers and spread seeds. India once had many thousands of groves, but encroachment for farming and industry is shrinking them.

Beyond India, and today

Ancient Greece had sacred mountains and groves, Native Americans saw nature as sacred, and the Maori of New Zealand regard Mount Taranaki as an ancestor; a recent law gave it the rights and responsibilities of a person. In India, though, many sacred rivers are polluted and sacred places degraded. When a river is drained almost dry or a sacred mountain is threatened, people have spoken up for their environment and values, and a worldview that sees nature as sacred has much to offer a world worried about sustainability.

Why it matters

Seeing rivers, mountains and forests as sacred has helped Indians protect them for centuries, and it can still guide conservation today. The pilgrimage networks that cross this landscape are in sacred geography of India, and the journeys themselves in pilgrimage and trade. Answers to every question are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 8; see also the full Chapter 8 notes.