A Historical Overview of Ethnobotanical
Literature of Chhattisgarh [India]: A Graphic Review and Future Directions
School
of Life Sciences, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla
University, Raipur (C.G.), India 492010
ABSTRACT:
This review
of ethnobotany of Chhattisgarh state, literature
covers approximately the period 1902-2005. During this period about 315
publications have appeared on ethnobotany of C.G. and
closely bordering topics. Papers have been published in about 50 journals in
India and abroad. Some 110 persons have been writing on ethnobotanical
themes; most of these are plant taxonomists. Work has been published on over 16
ethnic groups. Only three or four ethnic groups have been the subject of more
than five publications. Only two districts Bastar and
Surguja have been well covered. Rest of the districts
have been small work or no worked done. Ethnomedicine
for over 12 diseases, ailments and injuries figure in titles of papers. Based
on this analysis, certain themes and areas are suggested for more intensive
work.
KEYWORDS: Gaps in Ethnobotany; Ethnomedicine; Ethnic groups; Future directions
INTRODUCTION:
The sea-horse shaped Chhattisgarh state come
into existence on 1st November 2000 by the Bill “Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act. 2000” passed in the parliament. Until
then it was a part of Madhya Pradesh state. It is situated between 17046’
to 24005’ North latitude and 80015’ to 84026’
east longitude. It measures 360 kms from North to South and 140 kms,
from West to East, comprising an area about 135194 sq. kms,
which is about 4.14% of India’s total land area and 30% of its parent state
“Madhya Pradesh”. The southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, viz. Bastar, Bilaspur, Dantewara, Dhamtari, Durg, Janjgir-Champa, Jashpur, Kanker, Kawardha, Korba, Koria, Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Raipur, Sarguja etc. from Chhattisgarh. This state is surrounded by
Orissa and Jharkhand on the East, Uttar Pradesh on the North, Madhya Pradesh
and Maharastra, on the West and Andra
Pradesh on the South. Geographically a large part of Chhattisgarh lies in the
valley of rivers Mahanadi and Sheonath. The eastern
part lies on the Chhota-Nagpur plateau and the
southern part in the Deccan plateau. Chhattisgarh is abundantly endowed with
natural resources. Its dense forest cover occupies about 41.42 percent of the
area of the state with a number of wild life sanctuaries populated by tigers,
leopards, bears, bisons, hyenas, wild bears etc.
The state is rich for different tribes.
According to the Census of 1991, the Scheduled Caste people constitute about
12.19% of the total population and scheduled tribes are about 32.46%, it is
four times more than that of national figure (8%). In other words it can be
said that nearly every third person in the state is a tribe. The life style of
tribal people depends upon the land. Agriculture, hunting, fishing, collection
of forest products, bamboo work or labour of any kind
is their livelihood.
Scheduled Caste viz. Chikwa,
Ghasi, Mahar, Chamar, Mehtar and Scheduled
tribes are –Oraon, Agria,
Bhil, Gond, Bhungia, Bharia, Kol, Khairwar,
Korwa, Manjhi, Muria, Saharia etc.
Ethnobotany, as an organised
discipline of study in India, is rather young, just about five decades old. The
first bibliography of ethnobotany in India was
published in the early eightes (Jain et al.1984).
Most of the publications in the three decades of the fifties, sixties and
seventies. This was natural, as the subject was just getting known, attracting
more and more young field botanists and others to “extend” their simple plant
collection and floristic or ethnographic work to closer enquiries and record of
indigenous uses of plants.
Since the eighties, however, emphasis has
been laid on more specific work on particular classes of indigenous uses, like
plants in food, medicine, other material culture and even faith tradition
selected to conservation of bioresources and on
particular diseases or ethnic groups.
A recent detailed bibliographic work on
Indian ethnobotany (Jain 2002) has brought out
certain facts and also trends in research. The following analysis covers
approximately the period 1902-2005. First book published was one century year
ago by wood (1902) on plants of Chota-nagpur
including Jashpur and Surguja.
These all 315 references listed in a recent
“Bibliography of Ethnobotany of C.G. state” (Minor
research project submitted to IOE, Gwalior by Tirkey
2005). These references are relate strictly to ethnobotanical
work or very closely allied themes on Chhattisgarh.
(A) Ethnic groups:
Over 59, papers relate to specific ethnic
groups. Studies on the different aspects of Oraons (Sahu 1980, Sen 1965, Tirkey 1992, Das 1959, Danda
1977, Roy 1915,1928,2004) Baiga, Gond
and Sahariya of central India (Brij
Lal 1993, Elwin 1958, Jain 1965, Grigson
1949, Jain A.K. 1990), Bhils (Koppers
et al 1948, Ranade 1956, Shrivastava
1985), Munda, Nagas, Korwa, Khairwar (Basu 1932-33, Jamir 1990, Baghel 1981, Bajpai 1997, Lakra 1997), Maria, Pahariya and Kharia (Elwin 1943, 1947, Sahay
1966, Roy et al 1937) and the Abujhmaria and Bharia (Maheshwari 1989, 1985)
have resulted in many publication. (Fig –1)
(B) Ethnomedicobotany:
Though a very little publication of papers
on ethnomedicobotany deal with some diseases for
which cures were reported to authors of those papers. Only 12 kinds of ailments
and injuries have been studied by 16 papers (Tirkey
et.al. 2004, 2000, Jain 1987, Brij 1988) on some
topical themes like Indigestion, Dysentery, Jaundice, Bone fracture,
Rheumatism, Ethnoveterinary, snake bite, skin disease
and Hair problems. (Fig- 2)
(C) Regional coverage:
The
districts / regions in Chhattisgarh on which 65 or more publications have
appeared are shown in Fig 3. This analysis is based on the name of district / tehsils appearing in title and can be only approximate,
because many papers mention names of India and its parent state M.P.
A number of
papers deal with dozens of families and some plant species of ethnobotanical significance in any area. About 9 papers
deal with only one or two particular species in detail. Few plants like Mahua (Roy et. al. 1959), Polypleurum
dichotomum (Roy et. al. 1986), Water
bottle (Jain 1964), Bauhinia vahlii (Jain et
al 1973), Nyctanthus arbor – tristis (Jain et al 1964), and Elephantopus scaber
(Kumar et al 2002) have been the subject of only one title.
28 families
of flowering plants namely: Asteraceae, Mimosaceae, Aizoaceae, Molluginaceae, Malvaceae Oleaceae, Burseraceae, Passifloraceae, Fabaceae, Leguminaceae, Ulmaceae, Moraceae, Opiliaceae, Elacegnaceae, Verbenaceae, Araliaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Polygonaceae, Cyperaceae, Commilinaceae , Orchidaceae, Ebenaceae, Convolvulaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Eriocaulaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Bignoniaceae have known medicinal plants of Chhattisgarh.
Fortunately, it is not only the Angiosperms
which have attracted ethnobotanists, other groups of
plants have also received attention of ethnobotanists,
e.g. Brij Lal et al
(1995,1985) on Lichenes. Lal
and Anand (1998) on Pteridophytes
and Rai et al (1992) on Fungus.
A few interesting publications describe the
journeys of their authors into ‘untrodden paths’,
like Magico-religious beliefs about plants (Banerjee 1974), A note on bidi
leaf (Das et al 1963), Plants used as fish Poison (Kumar et al
2003), Ghirra mahotsav (Goel 1990), Musical instruments (Elwin 1955,a,b), Ranu- A tribal tablet (Chaudhuri et.
al. 1977), Cottage industries (Jain 1995, Brij lal et. al. 1993), Observations on some energy
plants (Singh et.al.1999) Food plants (Jain et.al.1990,1988, Rai 1925, Kumar 2003) short note on tribal folk (Chattopadhyaya 1954) and Toys of tribal children (Elwin
1953).
All 315 references shows that about 110
persons, mostly botanists and usually taxonomists, have been bublishing on ethnobotany in C.G.
Published papers have appeared in over one hundred periodicals. Journal of
Economic and Taxonomic Botany and Ethnobotany
have published over 100 papers each during the period under review; other
notable journals in this respect are Economic Botany, Ancient science
of life, Bulletin of Botanical Survey of India, Bulletin of Medicoethnobotanical
Research, and Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
Finally, the analysis brings out certain
lacunae and possible directions for future work.
On the basis of literature Bastar district and Surguja
districts are particularly rich in plant diversity, including land races and
wild relatives of crop plants. They are also home of varied ethnic groups. Yet,
studies on these hilly regions have not been adequate; e.g. there are only
about a dozen papers. Very little work has been done on district like Raigarh, Jashpur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Raipur and Bilaspur. Rest of 8 districts have been not touched.
Many important aspects of ethnobotany on which botanists, anthropologists,
agriculture scientists, geographers and other naturalists are working and pubishing in other parts of the India, are hardly being
studied in Chhattisgarh. Some such topics or themes are also mentioned below :
1. The impact of use of one or few specific
plants for food, medicine, music, dyes, gums, house-building or other needs and
trade on the population of these species or on biodiversity and ecosystem of
the region;
2. The impact of faith and taboos associated
with certain plants or sacred groves on conservation of those species and on
the ecosystem and other conservation practices of the folk;
3. The concept of the folk about taxonomy of
various kinds of plants of their surroundings, e.g. any notable system of
classification into small or large groups, comparable in any manner with
botanical families, genera or other taxa, and any
expression of such knowledge in local names of plants;
4. Any discernible gender, age, occupation or
other demarcations among the folk relating to knowledge about plants of their
vicinity;
5. Tribal arts like painting, tatooing and artifacts; many of the latter can be developed
in to cottage industries for souvenies, etc and bring
socio-economic benefits.
6. More tribe and plant specific studies.
Alcorn (1995) studied the writings of
several ethnobotanists in developing countries
relating specially to problems of socioeconomic development. She laid emphasis
on the question : What good is this plant? If this question can become
the focus of field workers, the interviews, the data, and the intreprectations of ethnobotanical
researches can become still more meaningful.
The planners do need data on such natural
wealth of a region, which can become an economic resource, directly or after
some improvement and processing.
Of particular interest and use in this
respect should be critical studies and the way the local folk attempt to manage
them.
The Author thanks are due to the HOD, School
of life Sciences, Pt. R.S.U., Raipur for facilities provided. She expresses her
thanks to Dr. S.K. Jain for his cooperation, moral support, inspiration, affection
and timely encouragement. She expresses her sincere thanks to the Director
NBRI, Lucknow for providing their kind help and
library staff, Finally, gratefully express her sincere thanks to Dr. Asok Jain, Hon. Director, IOE, Jiwaji
University, Gwalior for financial support.
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Received on 25.06.2011
Modified on 14.07.2011
Accepted on 10.08.2011
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