Abstract

Indigenous Ethno-Medicinal and Ethno-Veterinary Practices in Shivalik Hills Zone of Himachal Pradesh, India

Author(s): Gulshan Kumar and Hem Chander

Shivalik hills are the rich repository of diverse aromatic and medicinal plants. The present study fo-cused on the analysis, documentation and interpretation of indigenous ethno-medicinal and ethno-veterinary prac-tices in Shivalik hills zone of Himachal Pradesh, North-West Himalaya. During the study, a total of two hundred species of plants have been identified and enumerated. The highest number of species belongs to the families Brassi-caceae, Cucurbitaceae, Leguminosae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Solanaceae, Ranunculaceae and Sapindaceae. A wide range of diseases of human ranging from cough and cold to asthma and bronchitis, cuts and wounds to snake-bites, and are treated by the traditional healers of study area with the help of these local plant remedies. Some of these plants are also used for ethno-veterinarian practices by livestock owners to diagnose animal diseases like foot and mouth disease, constipation, dysentery and de-worming etc. It was observed that unsustainable collection meth-ods, poor post-harvest methods, soil erosion, intense deforestation and grazing animals are causing serious threat to these plants.

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