Contributed to the ISE Newsletter by R.P. Harisha1

Mr. Shivanna belongs to Soliga community; he is living in Keernahola village place where our Community based Conservation Center (CCC) located. He is holding Heliotropium strigosum (Kogge gida in Kannada) belongs to Boraginaceae family. He has been using leaf of this plant for curing ear pain and related problems.

Of the over 15000 (33.1%) higher plant species in Indian tropical forest, a wide range of them are harvested for WEH purposes. In particular, dozens of plants are used as wild food plants; harvested from and around arable fields, scrub wood lands, wetlands, and homesteads. Several families of plants are used, with the genera Amaranthus, Cleome, Solanum and Dioscoria being the most conspicuous. The amount of wild edible plants consumed in forest fringe areas of India are known to range from 12 to over 130 kg per household per year, with a single household using as many as 25 species. However, not much information exists on the cultivation and domestication of most of these wild edible plants. The socio-economic status of individual households (e.g., Wealth, gender of household head, location of community and culture) could potentially influence the use of wild edible plants. In the Malai Madeshwara Hills Reserve Forest of Southern India, the mean consumption frequency of wild edible plants per household and per capita was higher for poorer households than the richer households.

They are from the Soliga community from Anehola village; they are documenting wild edible plants in the forest. He is holding fruits of Dimocarpus longan (Gudagan jagadi) belong to family Sapindaceae which are edible.

Of the over 15000 (33.1%) higher plant species in Indian tropical forest, a wide range of them are harvested for WEH purposes. In particular, dozens of plants are used as wild food plants; harvested from and around arable fields, scrub wood lands, wetlands, and homesteads. Several families of plants are used, with the genera Amaranthus, Cleome, Solanum and Dioscoria being the most conspicuous. The amount of wild edible plants consumed in forest fringe areas of India are known to range from 12 to over 130 kg per household per year, with a single household using as many as 25 species. However, not much information exists on the cultivation and domestication of most of these wild edible plants. The socio-economic status of individual households (e.g., Wealth, gender of household head, location of community and culture) could potentially influence the use of wild edible plants. In the Malai Madeshwara Hills Reserve Forest of Southern India, the mean consumption frequency of wild edible plants per household and per capita was higher for poorer households than the richer households.In spite of the importance of wild edible herbs in the complex livelihood network that involves extraction from marginal lands and agro-ecosystems, their economic and land restoration potentials are little known.

Therefore, the assessment of the value of lesser-known but useful plant species must tally their contributions to biodiversity and conservation and the environment in which they occur. The biggest challenges facing the conservation of wild edible species, just as several other species, is cultivating them ex-situ, domestication, and the management practices associated with them. Conservation benefits of herbaceous species may be through their ability to adapt and provide ground cover with the potential to minimize soil erosion. They may also contribute to improving the humus content of the soil through their root systems, and be ploughed to provide green manure in organic viticulture. Regrettably, herbaceous species well adapted to their local environments are often classified as weeds; they face replacement with more costly non-endemic species to meet soil and water conservation needs, which has long term repercussions for local species diversity and endemism.

The author and tribal people are having seasoned tuber (Dioscoriea pentaphylla) for lunch during wild edible plants survey in middle of the forest.


1R.P. Harisha is a Research Associate, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Royal Enclave, Sriramapura, Jakkur Post. Bangalore -560064 Karnataka State, India. Email: [email protected]; Contact No: 91-80-23635555; Fax: 91-80-23530070; Website: www.atree.org