People and the Peepal: Cultural Attitudes to Sacred Trees and Their Conservation in Urban Areas

Growing urbanization and its negative impacts on urban ecology have been felt acutely, the world over. Protecting the ecosystem is a major issue on the global agenda and preserving it is a priority. Conservation of tree biodiversity through sustainable ecosystem management approaches is important to humankind for various reasons. Trees are life supporting systems and are useful to man as providing extractive and non-extractive benefits. Additionally, they also provide intellectual, aestheti...