ETHNO-MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE GUJJAR-BAKERWAL TRIBE AND LOCAL INHABITANTS OF DISTRICT RAJOURI OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR STATE

Abstract

The Gujjar-Bakerwal is among the native societies of Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya with strong faith and belief in traditional health care systems based on indigenous ethno-botanical knowledge. Further, the living conditions are not strong enough to bear the expenditure of money based other health care methods. Therefore, the present study is aimed at providing information regarding ethno-medicinal uses of plants of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir State by Gujjar-Bakerwal Tribe and other local inhabitants. Personal interviews were conducted with tribals, locals and traditional health practitioners including 'hakeems' and 'vaids'. A total of 46 plant species belonging to 35 families were recorded from the study area which is being used by Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe and other local inhabitants. Most of the species are used in the treatment of cough, rheumatism or other joint pains, stomach-ear ache, diarrhoea, dysentery, diabetes, skin diseases, etc. Majority of plant species used in ethno-medicinal practices belong to herbaceous category (19 species) followed by trees (15 species), shrubs (10 species) and ferns (2 species). Leaves are mostly exploited for the preparation of traditional medicines (32.34%) followed by roots (26.08%), fruits (10.86%), seeds (8.69%), stems and flowers (4.34%), and rest remaining from other miscellaneous parts or exudes like latex, gums and resins.

Headnote

ABSTRACT

The Gujjar-Bakerwal is among the native societies of Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya with strong faith and belief in traditional health care systems based on indigenous ethno-botanical knowledge. Further, the living conditions are not strong enough to bear the expenditure of money based other health care methods. Therefore, the present study is aimed at providing information regarding ethno-medicinal uses of plants of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir State by Gujjar-Bakerwal Tribe and other local inhabitants. Personal interviews were conducted with tribals, locals and traditional health practitioners including 'hakeems' and 'vaids'. A total of 46 plant species belonging to 35 families were recorded from the study area which is being used by Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe and other local inhabitants. Most of the species are used in the treatment of cough, rheumatism or other joint pains, stomach-ear ache, diarrhoea, dysentery, diabetes, skin diseases, etc. Majority of plant species used in ethno-medicinal practices belong to herbaceous category (19 species) followed by trees (15 species), shrubs (10 species) and ferns (2 species). Leaves are mostly exploited for the preparation of traditional medicines (32.34%) followed by roots (26.08%), fruits (10.86%), seeds (8.69%), stems and flowers (4.34%), and rest remaining from other miscellaneous parts or exudes like latex, gums and resins.

KEYWORDS: Ethno-medicines; Gujjar-Bakerwal Tribe; Nomadic; Traditional health care system; Treatment.

INTRODUCTION

The Himalaya is a vast mountain system and covers fully or partially eight countries of Asia i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. The Himalaya although cover only 18% of the geographical area of India, accounts for more than 50% of the Indiàs forest cover, and 40% of the species endemic to the Indian subcontinent (Maikhuri et al., 2000). In developing countries, rural population mainly comprised of herders, shepherds or other economically marginalized sections of the population use forests for grazing, fire wood and numerous other subsistence needs (Kothari et al., 1989; Van Schaik et al.,1997; Saberwal and Ranagarajan, 2003).

Plants have been unique sources of medicines and constitute the most common human uses of biodiversity (Hamilton, 2004). People depend on herbal remedies to treat abdominal pain, dysentery, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, indigestion, etc (Rashid, 2012). Medicinal plants are widely used by all section of the community, whether directly as folk remedies or as the medicaments of different indigenous system as well as in modern refined practices. The tribes and local communities have effectively developed their traditional knowledge system which incorporates the use of locally available plants and their products for the treatment of various ailments (Kala, 2005).

Gujjar-Bakerwal is a nomadic tribe of Jammu and Kashmir State and keeps on moving from place to place, with their livestock in search of fodder and forage. In summer, the tribes migrate from the Rajouri and Poonch to the Pir-Panjal ranges of North- Western Himalaya while with the onset of winter, come back to Rajouri and Poonch (Rashid et al., 2008).

Ethnobotanical studies bring out more useful information on unexplored, unexploited and/or overexploited natural resources and new uses of existing resources coupled with conservation of natural resources. This knowledge is also useful for policy makers for devising solution to local and regional problems (Anonymous, 1994). There are number of references pertaining to the ethnomedicinal studies of Jammu and Kashmir. Some concentrating on folk medicines in general while others have been devoted on the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants used by the tribal communities in particular (Azad and Shah, 2012; Bhat et al., 2012; Rashid, 2013 Jeelani et al., 2013; Mala and Sofi, 2014).

The present study is aimed at providing traditional knowledge about ethno-medicinally plant used by the Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe and other local inhabitants of Rajouri District of Jammu and Kashmir State.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Phytogeographically, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is divisible into three distinct provinces: (i) the Jammu region with more of tropical, subtropical and temperate elements, (ii) Kashmir region with its characteristic temperate and alpine flora and (iii) the cold region of Ladakh with predominance of alpine mesophytes, cold desertic and oasitic elements, characteristic of Tibetian plateau and Siberia (Singh et al., 1999). Rajouri is one of the hilly districts of Jammu and Kashmir State bounded by Jammu in south, Poonch in the north, PoK (Mirpur) in the west and Udhampur district in the east (Figure 1).

Geographically, Rajouri district lies between 30°50' to 33°30' North longitude and 74° to 74°10' East Latitude covering an area of 2630 km2.In-depth ethno-botanical surveys were carried out in order to harvest traditional knowledge using semi-structural questionnaires. Priority was given to the ageold persons including 'hakeems' and 'vaids' in order to fetch maximum traditional knowledge prevailing in health care systems. Besides questionnaires, the documentation was done based on interview, informal discussion and participatory observations following standard methods (Martin, 1995; Reyes Garcia et al., 2007). Plants in use were brought to laboratory, pressed, dried and preserved by conventional methods. The specimens were identified with the help of relevant flora (Chopra et al., 1956; Naithani, 1984; Gaur, 1999; Sing et al., 2002). For the confirmation of identification, the specimens were systematically matched with the authentic specimens lodged at internationally indexed Herbarium of Garhwal University, Srinagar (GUH). Plants have been properly labelled with botanical name(s), vernacular name(s), locality, family, date of collection and deposited in the Herbarium (GUH) obtaining collection number.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A total of 46 ethno-medicinally plants belonging to 35 families were collected and identified, used in the treatment of various diseases by the Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe and other local inhabitants. Descriptions regarding botanical names, vernacular names, family, parts used and the diseases or ailments in which plants are used have been incorporated in Table1. These plant species belong to 35 different families including angiosperms, gymnosperms and pteridophytes. Out of the 46 species used in the traditional health care system, Fabaceae was found as the dominant family of angiosperms with 3 species in medicinal use. Apocynaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, Liliaceae, Moraceae, Rutaceae and Scrophulariaceae each has 2 species used in curing various disorders. Pinaceae (Gymnosperms) and Adiantaceae (Pteridophytes) are also found in use with 2 species each.

Further, herbaceous plants are in maximum use followed by trees, shrubs and ferns (Figure 2). It has also been observed that most of the plant species are used in the remedial measure for the treatment of cough, rheumatism and other joint pains, jaundice, syphilis, gonorrhoea, ear, stomach pain, skin diseases, etc. Leaves are maximum exploited (33%) for the medicinal use followed by roots (26%), fruits (11%), seeds (9%), flowers and stems (4% each), and rest remaining other miscellaneous parts including latex and gum (Figure 3).

Earlier (Ahuja, 1965; Sharma and Singh (1989); Kiranjot et al., 2007; Shah et al., 2009; Bhellum and Singh, 2012) also discussed the ethno-botany of important medicinal plants used by different communities in different parts of India. Ethno-botany is a holistic approach involving the reciprocal and dynamic aspect of interaction of indigenous people with plants (Schultes, 1962; Fords, 1980) and includes studies such as food, fibre, dyes, tannins, medicinal, useful as well as harmful plants, taboos and megico-religious belief, material use and the action of domestication, conservation, improvement or over-exploitation of plants (Ford, 1978; Jain, 1987, 1995). Simultaneously ethno-botany has evolved the relationship between the people-plant in a multidisciplinary manner linking botany, ecology, pharmacology and public health. These medicinal plants have been introduced in markets as a result of exploring traditional medicines and ethno-pharmacology (Balick, 1996; Bussmann, 2002). The local people have their own knowledge for the utilization and conservation of plants and this knowledge passes from generation to generation (Sharma et al., 2011). The Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe is among the native societies of Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya with strong faith and belief in traditional knowledge. Unfortunately this traditional knowledge is rapidly vanishing due to various logical and illogical reasons. Sometimes secrecy is being maintained for the conservation purposes of natural resources but on the other, due to misconception among the local practitioners of the traditional health care systems, that disclosing the secrecy affects the effectiveness of the folk medicines. This leads to overexploitation of natural resources due to lack of concrete information regarding the use of ethno-medicinal plants. Nevertheless, Gujjar-Bakerwal tribe of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir State is rich in ethnobiological knowledge and this knowledge is being transmitted from one generation to another. Similar information related to manplant interaction of many tribal communities from different parts of the world has been reported by various workers from time to time (Farnsworth et al., 1985; Johnston and Colquhouns, 1996; Nautiyal et al., 2001b; Negi et al., 2002).

The dwindling down of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is due to lack of sustainable development policy towards promoting knowledge based programmes on one hand and accessibility of allopathic medicines on the other. Pharmaceutical researches acknowledge that screening plants on the basis of information derived from traditional knowledge saves billions of dollars in time and resources (Hafeel and Shanker, 1999). Thus, there is urgent need to conserve the traditional knowledge existing among tribal communities in different parts of India including Gujjar- Bakerwal tribe through implementing some incentive programmes.

CONCLUSION

The study reveals the utilization pattern of some ethno-medicinal plants by the Gujjar- Bakerwal Tribe and other inhabitants of Rajouri District of Jammu and Kashmir State. They have developed their utilization pattern based on traditional knowledge existing from centuries. Further, they have strong faith in the traditional health care systems partially due to accessibility of natural sources as these are nomadic shifting seasonally in different parts of the State on one hand and largely due to costly modern health care systems. Nevertheless, tribals are well aware about availability of medicinal plants and parts used in curing various ailments. Cough, cold, fever, rheumatism and other joint pains, stomachache, weakness are among the common ailments treated traditionally using ethnomedicinal plants. But unfortunately, due to various reasons this traditional knowledge is dwindling down in the modern generations. Need is to conserve this traditional heritage through the implementation of some incentive programmes for the tribal communities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Authors are thankful to the University Grants Commission (UGC) New Delhi for financial support to one of the authors (Toseef Riaz) as Ph.D. Fellowship. Gujjar-Bakerwal Tribe and other local inhabitants deserve special thanks that have been kind enough in providing ethno-medicinal knowledge and other relevant information.

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Cite this article:

Toseef Riaz, Bhandari BS (2015), ETHNO-MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE GUJJAR-BAKERWAL TRIBE AND LOCAL INHABITANTS OF DISTRICT RAJOURI OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR STATE, Global J Res. Med. Plants & Indigen. Med., Volume 4(9): 182-192

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