Sacred Groves, Megaliths and Ritual: Belief-Based Biodiversity Conservation and Traditional Resource Management Among the Pnar of Nartiang, West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India

Abstract

Among many indigenous societies, religious belief and customary institutions function as an informal but effective system of biodiversity conservation and natural-resource management. This study examines that system in Nartiang, a large Pnar (Jaintia) village in West Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya, that is distinctive for retaining a living traditional religion (Niamtre) alongside one of the most important megalithic landscapes in India. Data were collected through household and field surveys, semi-structured interviews with village elders, the traditional chief (Daloi) and three folk medicinal practitioners, and direct documentation of plants, rituals and agricultural practice. The sacred landscape of the Iaw Mulong monolith garden and a network of belief-protected sacred groves (kloo blai) are shown to underpin the local conservation ethic. The Niamtre ritual calendar is closely articulated with the agricultural cycle through a sequence of kñia rites, and the farming calendar is further guided by phenological indicators—the leafing of Quercus serrata, flowering of Schima wallichii and fruiting of Castanopsis indica. Traditional agriculture conserves rice landraces and integrates crop–livestock production, while eighteen wild-edible and non-timber forest species and seventeen ethnomedicinal plants document a substantial body of plant knowledge. The paper argues that the intertwining of the sacred and the ecological has conserved biodiversity at Nartiang, and that pressures of population growth, expanding shifting cultivation and generational attrition now threaten this system, making documentation and community-based safeguarding urgent.

Introduction

The study explores the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and belief-based natural resource management practiced by the Pnar (Jaintia) community in Nartiang village, Meghalaya, demonstrating how indigenous knowledge contributes to biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use. Traditional knowledge, passed down orally through generations, integrates cultural beliefs, religious practices, agriculture, and environmental management, making it an effective system of adaptive conservation.

Nartiang, located in the West Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, is a predominantly Niamtre (indigenous religion) village known for its rich cultural heritage, sacred landscapes, and the largest collection of megalithic monuments in the state. Governed under the traditional Daloi institution, the village maintains a close relationship between its religious beliefs, customary governance, and natural resource management. Most residents depend on agriculture, supplemented by quarrying, livestock rearing, handicrafts, and collection of non-timber forest products.

One of the most important cultural features of Nartiang is the Iaw Mulong megalithic complex, where large standing stones and dolmens symbolize clan identity, ancestral memory, and community history. These sacred monuments continue to serve as religious and cultural centers, preserving traditional beliefs while reflecting historical interactions between indigenous and Hindu traditions.

The village also protects several sacred groves (kloo blai) dedicated to local deities. Religious beliefs strictly prohibit the removal of plants, wood, or other forest resources from these groves, allowing them to remain largely undisturbed for generations. These sacred forests function as important reservoirs of native biodiversity and demonstrate how cultural traditions can effectively conserve ecosystems without formal legal protection.

The indigenous Niamtre religion closely links spiritual practices with agriculture through an annual ritual calendar. Various ceremonies are performed before sowing, during crop growth, and before harvest to seek protection from disease, pests, floods, drought, and other natural hazards. Rituals involving animal sacrifice and sacred plants reinforce the connection between farming, environmental stewardship, and religious belief. Alongside these indigenous practices, Nartiang also celebrates Hindu festivals such as Durga Puja, illustrating a unique form of religious syncretism.

Traditional ecological knowledge extends beyond rituals into practical farming. Farmers use phenological indicators such as the flowering, leaf flushing, and fruiting of specific plants, as well as insect behavior, to determine the appropriate timing for sowing, transplanting, harvesting, and ending daily agricultural work. These biological indicators provide a locally adapted agricultural calendar that complements formal seasonal schedules.

Agriculture remains the primary livelihood, with rice as the principal crop alongside ginger, maize, potatoes, beans, and vegetables. Farmers cultivate both lowland rice and shifting cultivation (jhum) systems while conserving traditional rice landraces through indigenous seed selection and storage techniques. Crop rotation, especially for ginger cultivation, helps maintain soil fertility, while integrated crop-livestock farming provides manure, draught power, and household income.

The community possesses extensive knowledge of wild edible plants, non-timber forest products, and ethnomedicine. Eighteen wild food resources and seventeen medicinal plant species were documented. These plants are used for food, treating common ailments such as digestive disorders, respiratory infections, wounds, burns, kidney problems, and snakebites, and also provide supplementary income through local trade. This ethnobotanical knowledge is transmitted orally across generations and represents an important component of the community's healthcare system.

Traditional food culture includes a variety of rice-based foods and the preparation of kiad, a fermented rice beverage that plays a central role in festivals and ceremonies. Mortuary customs also reflect the community's deep cultural connection with the landscape, where cremated remains are traditionally placed in clan ossuaries associated with the megalithic monuments. However, many of these customs are gradually declining as younger generations lose knowledge of traditional rituals.

Conclusion

Nartiang demonstrates how, among the Pnar of the Jaintia Hills, religion and custom operate as an integrated system of biodiversity conservation and resource management. A sacred megalithic landscape, a network of belief-protected groves, a Niamtre ritual calendar synchronised with the farming year, a finely observed set of phenological indicators, conserved rice landraces and a substantial body of ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal knowledge together constitute a coherent, locally adapted way of living in and with the environment. That this system persists in a single village—alongside a distinctive tribal–Hindu syncretism at one of the fifty-one Shakti Peethas—makes Nartiang an unusually complete case of bio-cultural heritage. The same study, however, records the system\'s vulnerability to population pressure, expanding jhum and generational attrition. Three priorities follow. First, the provisional plant identifications in Tables 5 and 6 should be confirmed through herbarium vouchering, and the ethnomedicinal claims investigated pharmacologically. Second, the sacred groves warrant formal support—for example through a community-based sacred-grove conservation programme linked to the protected-area network and administered through the traditional institutions themselves, as the community\'s own leaders suggest. Third, the ceremonial and ecological knowledge held by elders and healers should be recorded in full while its custodians remain. Conserving this indigenous knowledge, and the habitat and institutions that sustain it, is essential both to the identity of the community and to the biological diversity that its beliefs have long protected.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Anamika Upadhaya, Shikhar Kumar, Lovely Raliang, Meghali Baruah. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.