Indian forests are home to some of the traditional communities who are dependent on forests for their livelihood. These local communities are struggling to conserve forests along with government officials in some areas and in many areas, villagers themselves are protecting the habitats and explicitly rejecting government involvement. In Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, villagers have fought against mining and destruction of forest by citing the Wildlife Protection Act. The inhabitants of five villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan have declared 1,200 hectares of forest area the Bhairodev Dakav ‘Sonchuri’, enforcing their own set of rules and regulations. They donot allow hunting, and are protecting the wildlife against any outside encroachments. On account of nature worship prevalent mainly among the tribals, several virgin forests have been preserved in their pristine form as ‘Sacred Groves’. The Bishnois of Rajasthan are well known for protecting black bucks (chinkara) an endangered species, and herds of black buck, nilgai and peacocks can be seen as an integral part of the community and nobody harms them. The famous Chipko Movement in the Himalayas led by local communities, especially women, successfully resisted deforestation in several areas. They have also shown that community afforestation with indigenous species can be enarmously successful. Traditional conservation methods are revived through the Beej Bachao Andolan in Tehri and Navdanya. The Joint Forest Management programme furnishes a good, example for involving local communities in management and restoration of degraded forests.