"Indigenous Knowledge System on the Use of Medicinal Plants Among Tharu Community": (A Case Study of Motipur and Belwa VDC of Bardiya District, Nepal)

Abstract

The present study was conducted as a case study of Indigenous Knowledge system on the use ofmedicinal plants among Tharu community with the objectives of documenting the range of thelocal people knowledge of native plants and possibility of their exploitation, and makingcomprehensive list of medicinal plant as well as the traditional use pattern of these plants by thelocal people in one or another way. In the course of study on the sdescriptive and exploratoryresearch design was used.The data collected were both qualitative and quantitative nature. Bothprimary and secondary data were used in this study. All together sample size of 95 HH wasselected from the both village by using stratified random sampling method and discussed withthem by using semi structured questionnaire to gather the required information like economicand IK system on the use of medicinal plants to cure different diseases. Nine Traditional healerswere purposively selected from in and outside the selected villages as the Key informants andother knowledgeable person i.e. two local teachers, two local social worker and two NGOsrepresentatives were alsopurposively selected as the key informants for this research study.Focus group discussion with several groups of the study area i.e. youth group, women group etcwere also conducted. Semi structured questionnaire, interview guideline, different checklists,PRA tools were used to draw information about respondent's socio economic status, healingpractices, traditional practices on mode of medicines preparation, e, storage etc. The datacollected were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Especially Gurawa and Baidawa (traditional healer of the tharu community) and elder men andwomen in the village had better understanding about IK system on the use of medicinal plant.Generally Baidawa of the study area were not found professionally engaged in it as theiroccupation but they used to provide their IK system to the villagers and engaged in herbaltreatment without any fee on compulsory. At present neither Tharu of study area totally have leftthe traditional herbal practice nor could they successfully adopted modern medicine. Sothat thistime is very challenging for them. The research has focused that the tharu people of the studyarea are rich in indigenous knowledge on the use of medicinal plants as local medicines andmajority of the respondents have positive attitude toward conservation of forest and medicinalplant resources. It is founded that the tharu people using 115 species of medicinal plantsincluding herbs; shrubs and trees. In some cases, combination of plants was found effective for thebest results. A wide range of ailments i.e. fever, common cold, heat sickness, headache,stomachache, diarrhea, dysentery, fracture, snake biting and other minor wounds or cuts weretreated locally by using the medicinal plants. It is found that people from old aged group as wellas women and economically poor people have faith in the efficiency of these medicines but theyoung and the educated people are found not much interested in the traditional healing system ofthe Gurawa and Baidawa. Conservative superstition i.e. "shearing of such IK system to other, will make it worthless"among them, lower interest of new generate on the IK systems on the use of medicinal plant,destruction of forest resources due to excessive or over exploitation, impact ofmodernization/urbanization on it, Lack of documentation of such oral IK system were foundmajor problem which might be the causes for disappearing such IK system forever. The importance of indigenous knowledgeon the use of plant as medicines should be extended inthe ground reality. Immediate or prompt action plan should be designed and implemented for thedocumentation of such oral IK system in detail and précised manner. It is necessary to carry outmore detail researches on the topic to get the real and detail information about the IK system onthe use of medicinal plants.