The Idu Mishmi’s sacred groves: how Arunachal’s forests keep their own laws

The Idu Mishmi people of the Dibang valley hold certain forests sacred — places where hunting, felling and even entry are forbidden by customary law.

Biologists mapping these groves have found some of the highest bird and mammal densities in the eastern Himalaya, including clouded leopards and hornbills.

The groves work because the rule is internal: no fence, no guard, just a community’s shared memory of what the forest is for.