Complex sentence: Less than one percent of the ecoregion lies in reserves or protected areas but many are very small such as the sacred grove near Marakkanam, northwest of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, which preserves a section of evergreen closed canopy forest.
Split into simpler sentences: Less than one percent of the ecoregion lies in reserves or protected areas. The Marakanam Reserve Forest, a sacred grove near Marakkanam, northwest of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, preserves a section of evergreen closed canopy forest.