Place-making and environmental change in a Hindu pilgrimage site in India

► Environmental change takes place as a sacred place evolves into a pilgrimage site. ► The cultural economy of pilgrimage is dialectically related to spatial change. ► Changing notions of sacredness generate varied meanings of the environment in a place. ► The environment of pilgrimage is at once social, economic, cultural and religious. ► Institutional arrangements influence the intensity and pace of environmental change.