Objectives: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional profile and nutritional status based on BMI of adult Tharu, a tribal population of Uttarakhand, India. Methods: A total of 176 adult (aged > 18 years) Tharus of four villages of Udham Singh Nagar District, Uttarakhand, India, were studied. Height, weight has been taken as anthropometric measurements and BMI was calculated to ascertain nutritional status. Results: Overall, the extent of under-nutrition (BMI < 18.5) was found to be moderately high (22.2%) especially among old aged individuals. Moreover, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of undernutrition between males (26.2%) and females (18.9%). Conclusion: It is suggested that some immediate nutritional intervention programmes are needed for implementation among Tharu community of Uttarakhand, especially among old age individuals.

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The study attempts to ascertain an analysis of eight Arthrobacter luteus (Alu) insertion loci (ACE, TPA25, PV92, HS4.32, FXIIIB, D1, A25, B65) carried out in five tribal populations (Raji, Buxa, Jaunsari, Tharu and Bhotia) of Uttarakhand, Northern India. Total genomic DNA was extracted and amplification of genomic DNA by PCR analysis was carried out to examine the distribution of Alu (+) and Alu (–) genotypes from eight Alu loci. Genetic distance, genetic identity, pairwise Fst values and corresponding p values were computed between each pair of populations through analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) for each Alu loci. The populations exhibited high levels of intra population variations and low levels of inter population differentiation with the average Fst value of inter population being 0.05896, which was expected to be more as the Fst value of intra population was 0.06780. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by using the neighbour-joining (NJ) method and multidimensional (MDS) plot to trace out the genetic affinity between populations. The present data showed that Raji and Buxa community were an ancestral population and Jaunsari, Tharu and Bhotia were diverged latter from Buxa community. The present study is an effort to generate a basic gene frequency distribution data at eight polymorphic Alu loci among five autochthonous groups of Uttarakhand.

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