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Wild edible plants used by Garo tribes of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve in Meghalaya, India

Journal article published in 2012 by Bikarma Singh ORCID, Bk K. Sinha, Sj J. Phukan, Sk K. Borthakur, Vn N. Singh
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

The paper deals wild edible plants of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve, Meghalaya used by the Garo tribes. It comprises of 71 species under 61 genera and 42 families. Of which 38 species are used as vegetable and 33 species edible as raw or cooked. All plants are arranged alphabetically in the tabular form, followed by families, vernacular name(s), plant part(s) used and methodology. The Meghalaya state, approximately 22,429 km 2 in area, lies between the latitudes of 25°47'N to 26°10'N and the longitudes of 89°45'E to 92°45'E, with an altitude ranging from 100-1,965 m above sea level. It is one of the wettest place on earth, with a total forest area of ca 16,839 km 2 (forest cover 75.08%), and has an estimated population of about 23,57, 510 with a density of 104 person per sq km 2 . Ninety percent of the total area of the state is owned by the tribal communities 1,3 . The Khasi, Garo and Jaintia are the three principal tribes reside in the state. Garo tribes are the main inhabitant of the Garo districts, believed to be member of Tibet-Burman family. They have two divisions, one inhabits the hilly mountains, and others live in the plain areas. There are 12 main divisions of the hill Garos and 6 of the plain Garos. Their divisions are made according to certain task assigned to them which distinguished their names such as, the Abengs were told to pick cotton, the Kochus to prepare dried fish, the Chiksaks to collect edible bamboo-shoots and so on. Local tribes within the reserve maintain their terrestrial jurisdiction among the clan Akhing. There are all together 26 clans in Garo districts 4 . They are Christian by faith, and their society is matrilineal, inheritance is through the mother. Besides this tribe, Koches, Rabhas, Hajjongs and Banars are also residing in the Garo district. Nokrek Biosphere Reserve (NBR) was established on 13 th September, 1988 under the UNESCO,s Man and Biosphere (MAB) program, lies between 25°15' N to 25°29' N latitudes and 90°13' E to 90°30' E longitudes, is located in the western parts of the Meghalaya. It comprises of total 820 sq km of which 47.48 sq km is central core zone surrounded by a buffer zone of 772.52 sq km. It is one of the rich hot spot biodiversity area surrounded by Khasi hills (Meghalaya) in the East, Assam in North and West, and Bangladesh in the South.