Tribal medicine — The real alternative

Abstract

The author is involved in Ethno-medico-botanical survey for the past two decades. Much knowledge accumulated by the villagers and tribals is unknown to the scientists and urban people. Many varieties of plants associated with tribal people have already disappeared forever and many more are on the verge of extinction. The impact of deforestation, urbanization and modernization

is shifting the tribals from their natural habitats and their very knowledge, particularly with respect to herbal drugs is slowly disappearing. The immediate concern is to preserve this knowledge. There is an urgent need to tap the information before it is too late. Whatever exists is confined only to the older generation. There is a need to preserve this for the future. In this context some observations made by the author during her survey in Chittoor district, Andhra

Pradesh, are presented in a nutshell.