Biodiversity and Conservation of Iringole Kavu, Kerala, India: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

The scientific and policy relevance of sacred groves has grown as conservation science increasingly recognizes that biodiversity persistence depends not only on formally protected areas but also on diverse governance arrangements and culturally rooted stewardship. Iringole Kavu is a sacred grove (kavu) in Kerala’s Ernakulam district embedded within one of the world’s most celebrated biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats. While sacred groves have long been recognized as informal protected areas sustained by cultural institutions, accelerating land-use change, urban expansion, and shifting socio-religious practices are transforming the ecological and governance conditions under which these groves persist. This review synthesizes evidence relevant to Iringole Kavu’s biodiversity values, ecological functioning, and conservation prospects, and uses Iringole as a focal case to argue for a stronger scientific research agenda that can complement customary protection. Available studies suggest that Iringole Kavu supports notable plant richness and endemism, and that its belowground microbial and fungal communities—revealed through recent sequencing approaches—represent an additional, still-underappreciated dimension of biodiversity. At the same time, the scientific record remains uneven: most research on sacred groves prioritizes floristics and descriptive inventories, whereas long-term monitoring, experimental ecology, population genetics, landscape connectivity analysis, and social-ecological governance studies are comparatively scarce. Drawing on lessons from rainforest fragment research in the Western Ghats and global scholarship on sacred natural sites, the article identifies major threats (fragmentation, edge effects, invasive species, infrastructure pressures, and climate variability) and outlines an integrative research-and-management framework for Iringole Kavu. The proposed agenda emphasizes multi-taxa baseline inventories, standardized biodiversity monitoring, functional ecology, metagenomics and eDNA, participatory governance research, and decision-support tools for adaptive management. Strengthening scientific engagement—without undermining cultural stewardship—can help secure Iringole Kavu’s role as a biocultural refuge and a locally grounded model for conservation in rapidly changing landscapes. Conservation success at Iringole will depend on aligning rigorous ecological science with respectful engagement in cultural governance, ensuring that enhanced research strengthens, rather than displaces, the biocultural foundations that have historically protected the grove.