India, July 25 -- In the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, where the Vindhya hills flatten out into the dry plains of Bundelkhand, two forests sit next to each other and could not be more different. One is a devsthal, a sacred grove watched over by the village community, its canopy still thick with mahua and sal. The other is an ordinary patch of degraded forest a short walk away, open to anyone, and stripped bare.

A 2026 study by researchers at Maharaja Chhatarsal Bundelkhand University measured what village residents already knew. At two sacred grove sites, Jatashankar and Bhimkund, they counted 70 to 72 plant species per site, including medicinal herbs such as Curcuma caesia and Chlorophytum borivilianum. The nearby degraded fore...