Most human societies, in the course of millennia of social and cultural evolution, had evolved a variety of regulatory measures to ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources. These measures included family-wise restricted quota of forest biomass, removal of only dead and fallen plants, sharing of natural resources, prohibition on sale of forest biomass to outsiders (all of which are to this day followed in the Halkar village in the outskirts of Kumta town in Uttara Kannada district). The fishing families in the estuarine villages in the Kumta taluk of Aghanashini River had shared among them traditional fishing privileges in the individual ‘kodis’ or estuarine channels. Traditional hunting was a taboo until Deepavali festival in the forested villages of Uttara Kannada. To quote Madhav Gadgil (1992):
For local people, degradation of natural resources is a genuine hardship, and of all the people and groups who compose the Indian society they are the most likely to be motivated to take good care of the landscape and ecosystems on which they depend. The many traditions of nature conservation that are still practiced could form a basis for a viable strategy of biodiversity conservation.
Protection of forest patches as sacred has been reported from many parts of India and many other countries in the recent decades. Trees were normally not to be cut in such forests as they were dedicated to gods. Such sacred groves still persist in many parts of Asia and Africa (Gadgil and Vartak, 1976; Frazer, 1935; Gadgil, 1987).
Most of Himalayas, the rain forest clad North East India, the Central Indian hills, parts of Rajaputana region, many parts of Deccan and the Western Ghat-west coast regions of India had witnessed through ages the strong tradition of conservation of patches of forests as sacred, especially by village and forest dwelling communities. During the period of British colonialism the government asserted its ownership over common lands, including sacred forests, which the local communities had safeguarded and managed through generations. Sweeping cultural changes concomitant with industrial and agricultural advancements also changed traditional belief systems in which nature had a central role. Worship of gods associated with natural sacred sites and ‘panchabhutas’ or the five elements, has in a major scale given way to installing deities in man-made structures, causing neglect and even exploitation of the precious heritage of natural sacred sites. Nevertheless, Malhotra et al. (2001) have made an excellent compilation from the states like Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jarkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,  Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Orissa, western Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal etc., which have more forest wealth than other states, strong evidences of nature conservation tradition, in the form of  sacred groves. These sacred forests are known by various names in peninsular India: such as devarakadu, devarubana or kan in Karnataka, kavu in Kerala, kovilkadu in Tamil Nadu and devrai in Maharashtra.
D. Brandis (1897), the first Inspector General of Forests in India, was one of the first persons to make commendation on the system of sacred groves in the country:
Very little has been published regarding sacred groves in India, but they are, or rather were, very numerous. I have found them nearly in all provinces. As instances I may mention the Garo and Khasi hills which I visited in 1879, the Devarakadus or sacred groves of Coorg….and the hill ranges of the Salem district in the Madras Presidency….These are situated in the moister parts of the country. In the dry region sacred groves are particularly numerous in Rajputana. In Mewar, they usually consist of Anogeissus latifolia, a moderate sized tree with small leaves, which fall early in the dry season….Before falling the foliage of these trees turns a beautiful yellowish red, and at that season these woods resemble our beech forests in the autumn. In the southernmost States of Rajaputana, in Partabgarh and Banswara, in a somewhat moister climate, the sacred groves, here called Malwan, consists of a variety of trees….These sacred forests, as a rule, are never touched by the axe, except when wood is wanted for the repair of religious buildings
Brandis also referred to a “ remarkable little forest of Sal (Shorea robusta)” near Gorakhpur being maintained by a Muslim saint, Mian Sahib. The forest was in good condition and well protected. Nothing was allowed to be cut except wood to feed the sacred fire and “this required the cutting annually of a small number of trees which were carefully selected among those that showed signs of age and decay.”