India, June 5 -- Across Odisha, Adivasi and forest-dependent communities are restoring forests through collective governance, cultural memory and everyday stewardship.

From sacred groves and Thengapali patrols to women-led forest federations, conservation here is rooted in rights, reciprocity and lived ecological knowledge.

On World Environment Day, Odisha's community-led conservation movements offer a powerful reminder: forests thrive when the people who depend on them are recognised as their custodians.

Odisha is one of India's most vibrant landscapes of community-led conservation - a place where ecological wisdom, cultural identity and democratic governance converge. Long before state-led forest management, forest-dependent communit...