An open-source web-GIS application for prioritization and conservation of Sacred Groves of Kodagu district of Karnataka

Western Ghats of India harbors a prominent range of cultural practices like worshipping of Sacred Groves (SG), sacred forests and sacred mountains. Kodagu is one such area which lies in the eastern slopes of Western Ghats of India have a unique concept of worshipping sacred forests which is named as Devarakadu and considered as “Gene Banks” of biodiversity. The rapid urbanization and development of the country has led to the encroachment of SGs. In last few decades, protection of these SGs has been emphasized due to the socio-economic, ecological and conservation importance of SGs. The present work focuses the management, prioritization and dissemination of data of SGs which aids the conservation. The result of the present work shows the prioritization of SGs into five viz. ‘Extreme’, ‘High’,’Medium’,’Low’ and ‘Least’ priority classes where 2 SGs are prioritized as ‘Extreme’ 3 as ‘High’, 8 as ‘Medium’ 8 as ‘Low’, and 4 as ‘Least’ priority classes. Web GIS application demonstrates the dissemination, visualization of SGs data which can be queried according to the user needs revealing the efficiency and effectiveness of the tool which supports to take necessary conservation strategies.