A sacred grove or sacred woods are any grove of trees that are of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world.
The sacred groves in the Western Ghats are a rich source of fruit bearing trees and small water bodies and act as habitat for several birds and reptiles.
In Kerala every village has a temple and in olden days every temple was invariably associated with a Kavu (sacred grove) which are distinct and unique in biological diversity. People were not allowed to enter the Kavus except for worship and any other activity is forbidden. But in the course of time, Kavus were gradually disappeared due to various reasons such as pressure on land, loss of faith in keeping the sanctity of groves, changing socio-economic scenario etc. In some temples, Kavus were maintained in a small scale as a representation of the one existed in the past. Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Thrissur. Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod have large number of groves preserved and maintained at least partially. It is estimated that Kerala has about 1500 Kavus (sacred groves) either big or small. A survey conducted by the Rajiv Gandhi Tropical Botanical Garden & Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram identified 261 Kavus, as given below: