The forest overwhelms your senses—sight, sound, smell. Colourful, flower-shaped mushrooms burst through the thick undergrowth. Moss and lichen cover every inch of the trees. A wren warbler calls out with its distinctive whistle-cry just before crickets and cicadas resume their cacophony, drowning the soft gurgle of a crystal clear stream as it takes a sharp bend over a bed of rocks. You look up and stare straight at a perfect heart-shape opening in the foliage—it’s a metaphor of the Mawphlang Sacred Grove.
Meghalaya is home to more than 100 such community-owned sacred groves across its hills and valleys, some spread over just one hectare, the biggest over 400 hectares. Mawphlang is about 77 hectares, but it is one of the most religiously protected; a biodiversity paradise just 25 km from the state capital, Shillong. “It’s where our deities reside…and anyone who disturbs the deities is punished,” says Tambor...
