Лесные исследования: открытый доступ
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Ethnobotanical Knowledge of Medicinal Plants among Tribal Communities in Orissa, India

LS Kandari, Ashish K. Gharai, Tripti Negi and PC Phondani

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important source of Pharmaceutical industries for developing a variety of drugs in one hand and in other hand income for the traditional communities living in and around forests. The pressure on forests for the collection of NTFPs has motivated conservation biologists and forest managers to find ways to harvest NTFPs in a sustainable manner. Identification of plant species is the first and foremost criterion in planning for sustainable utilization of resources. The present study was conducted in five-forest division covering 12 villages having an average 345 households of Keonjhar district in Orissa on various NTFPs products. A total of 24 plant species of NTFPs are collected from the forest. The collected NTFPs were used in different purposes i.e. medicines, vegetables, essential oils, dye yielding, food items and other miscellaneous items by the tribal people. The seasonal variations of the availability of NTFPs indicates that there were seven NTFPs found in winter season, eight found in summer season, four in monsoon season and five found in around the year. It was observed that 88.9% villagers were engaged in agriculturefollowed by (10.14%) labor category and only 0.86% in business or service class. In this study, it is suggested that the tribal community should be involved in the established market chain for marketing of NTFP’s. This will be also useful for the conservation and maintenance of NTFPs, which is a major livelihood option for poor traditional communities if we used in a sustainable way.