Wild edible plants and their additional uses by the Tangsa community living in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The traditional dependence on wild edible plants (WEP) is natural for the tribal communities in Arunachal Pradesh. The rich flora and dense vegetation a.most in all regions of the state provide numerous such edible plants.The people of Tangsa tribal community living in the Kharsan Circle of Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. A study among them led to the record of 51 species of wild plants of which 36 species are dicotyledonous, 13 are monocotyledonous and one species each from gymnosperms and pteridophytes. These are dominated by herbaceous plants and leaves and leafy-young shoots are the most preferred plants parts to eat. While majority of the plant parts they consume after cooking, they also prepare chatneys and pickles. While just one plant part is eaten for 45 species, three parts (leaves, strobilus and seeds) of Gnetum gnemon and two parts of five other species (Begonia roxburghii, Calamus tenuis, Physalis minima, Salacca secunda and Spondias pennata) are edible.In addition to their food value, some of these plants are also used as medicine, for thatching, handicrafts, etc. However, many of these wild-harvests are also sold in local temporary markets.Assessment of the population structure is to be done immediately and proper conservation strategies need to be developed and implemented for their sustainable harvest and use.Pleione 12(2): 151 -164. 2018.

‘Phalap-Khah’ – the bitter tea of Tangsa community in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, India

“…So, with the progress of the benefits of modern civilization and the easy availability of industry made commodities, soon, the people of the future generations will lose their interest in carrying their Traditional Knowledge and that will lead to the loss of so important age-old stock of knowledge. So far, almost no ethnobotanical study was conducted on these people except a small work covering only one village of Changlang district (Lungphi et al 2018).…”

“…Tangsas probably left their Chinese settlement area long back, entered Myanmar and then came to India and are now living mostly on Paktkai hill range extensions in Arunachal Pradesh. Few of them are also living in the hilly areas of Tinsukia district of Assam, bordering Arunachal Pradesh (Lungphi et al 2018).…”

Traditional uses and pharmacological activities of Sterculia villosa Roxb. - an underutilized tree of south east Asia

“…The Chakma tribe, who live in the Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh, use an extract made from the root as a source of vitamins (Rahman et al 2007). It is possible to eat seeds in their raw, roasted, or baked forms (Stephen 1998;Sarkar & Devi 2017;Sharma et al 2013;Moyong et al 2019;Kar et al 2013;Lungphi et al 2018;Dholariya et al 2019). In far-west Nepal, stem bark is used to make bread (Kunwar et al 2010).…”

“…Fruits are also edible (Shaheen et al 2017;Subedi et al 1993). During the dry season, the water stored in the roots is drawn out (Lungphi et al 2018) (Table 3).…”

Indigenous Uses of Plants among Forest-dependent Communities of Seijosa, Arunachal Pradesh

“…Tag and Das (2004), Ali and Ghosh (2006), Angami et al (2006), Tangjang et al (2011), Jeri et al (2011), Shankar and Rawat (2012), Perme et al (2015), Murtem and Chaudhry (2016), Jeyaprakash et al (2017) and Danggen et al (2018) conducted ethnobotanical study among various tribal communities of Arunachal Paradesh. However, Srivastava et al (2010), Yakang et al (2013), Singh and Asha (2017), Lyngdoh et al (2016), Lungphi et al (2018) and Balkrishna et al (2019Balkrishna et al ( , 2021 studied traditional knowledge among different tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh. The current survey recorded 365 plant species belonging to 272 genera and 95 families through systematic collection highlighting the utilization of various plant species by local natives and hence finding out the phytoresources in Seijosa circle of Arunachal Pradesh.…”