This is the Mawphlang sacred forest, in Shillong. The Khasi tribe is  particular about preserving its forests. Nuts, medicinal herbs, flowers and fruits from the grove could be consumed if required, but not taken outside or sold. Evergreen Chinkapin (Castanopsis kurzii) trees grow at the outer edges, restricting the ingress of the Khasi Pine trees (Pinus kesiya). Epiphytic growths of orchids, aroids, pipers, ferns, and fern-allies hug the sacred trunks. A variety of fleshy fungi is found on dead trees and fallen branches, and a multitude of mosses and lichens dot nearly every surface.Photograph: Karthik P Hariharan

Sacred Groves

by Team Nature inFocus

This is the Mawphlang sacred forest, in Shillong. The Khasi tribe is  particular about preserving its forests. Nuts, medicinal herbs, flowers and fruits from the grove could be consumed if required, but not taken outside or sold. Evergreen Chinkapin (Castanopsis kurzii) trees grow at the outer edges, restricting the ingress of the Khasi Pine trees (Pinus kesiya). Epiphytic growths of orchids, aroids, pipers, ferns, and fern-allies hug the sacred trunks. A variety of fleshy fungi is found on dead trees and fallen branches, and a multitude of mosses and lichens dot nearly every surface.

Photograph: Karthik P Hariharan