Traditional knowledge & Dynamics of edible plants of primitive tribal group ‘<em>Paudi Bhuyan</em>’ with changing demography migration patterns in Northern Odisha

Abstract

Traditional Ethnoecological Knowledge (TEK) deals with interactions between human population and nature. The current study captures seasonal (January to March) preference of edible plants (both wild and domesticated) in a primitive tribal group, ‘<em>Paudi Bhuyan</em>’ in district Angul in Northern Odisha. This exploratory study in eleven villages assessed level of similarity and difference regarding dependence of this tribe on plant based food options against factors such as demography (including gender), literacy, accessibility, and distance from motorable roads. Results reveal that various permutations and combination of these factors have impacted the knowledge of food plants differently in the study villages. Knowledge was lower in homogenous villages, and was inversely proportional to percentage of youth present in the villages. Gender did not influence the knowledge level but accessibility of roads had an inverse relationship to knowledge levels. Methods like participatory rural appraisal (PRA), focus group discussions (FGD), questionnaires and interview schedules were employed in this study and 52 edible plant species belonging to 27 families were recorded. An Edibility Index (EI) giving a component wise usage scale was also calculated to understand its current consumption level.