Correct option: (d) conserving rare and threatened species.
Explanation:
An area with particular types of trees dedicated to local deities or ancestral spirits that are protected by local communities through social traditions and taboos incorporating spiritual and ecological values are called as sacred groves.
Sacred groves act as an ideal centre for biodiversity conservation. Several plants and animals that are threatened in the forest are still well conserved in some of the sacred groves. It has been observed that several medicinal plants that are not to be found in the forest are abundant in the sacred groves. Further, rare, endangered, threatened and endemic species are often concentrated in sacred groves.
