Which of the following statement is incorrect regarding Sacred Groves?

Statement A. It is an informal way of protecting trees by traditional communities.
Statement B. There is no problem of legal ownership regarding them by different entities.
Statement C. Hindu people commonly worshipped natural objects, including trees and groves.
Statement D. Expansion and human settlement have slowly encroached on sacred forests.

Choose the correct answer from the given options:

A and B

The correct answer is Option 2 - B only

Statement A. It is an informal way of protecting trees by traditional communities. (correct)
Statement B. There is no problem of legal ownership regarding them by different entities. (incorrect)
Statement C. Hindu people commonly worshipped natural objects, including trees and groves. (correct)
Statement D. Expansion and human settlement have slowly encroached on sacred forests. (correct)

Protecting nature for religious reasons is an ancient practice in many traditional societies. Sacred groves in India (parcels of uncut forest vegetation in the name of certain deities or natural or ancestral spirits) exemplify such practice. As a model of community-based resource management, groves have lately gained attention in conservation literature. The sacred groves can be seen as a system that informally forces traditional communities to harvest natural resources in an ecologically sustained fashion. Some researchers believe that sacred groves hold the potential for preserving not only biodiversity and ecological functions, but also cultural diversity. Sacred groves embody a rich set of forest preservation practices and they share characteristics with common property resource systems. Their size ranges from clumps of a few trees to several hundred acres. Traditionally, sacred groves have been valued for their embodied spiritual and cultural attributes. Hindus commonly worshipped natural objects, including trees and groves. Many temples have originated from sacred groves. Deep religious reverence for nature, rather than resource scarcity, seems to be the basis for the long-standing commitment to preserving these forests. In recent years, however, expansion and human settlement have slowly encroached on sacred forests. In many places, the institutional identity of these traditional forests is fading with the advent of new national forest policies. A real problem in managing sacred groves arises when legal ownership and operational control are held by different entities. The two entities in question, the state and the community, vary in their policy norms and underlying motives for using the sacred grove.