An overview of changing food habits of tribal people in Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal

Tribal people may be considered as the special group of people whose socio-economic structure is different in comparison with the non-tribal or advanced group of people. Tribal people generally use simple technology which they think fits well with the nature and inside the ecological surroundings. They run their life in an eco-friendly way and gathered traditional knowledge from the nature and crystallized in the laboratories of life over million years. As they are very close to environment, they know the use of nature very well and their dietaries are both simple and complex. They acquired immense knowledgeaboutappropriate use of wild flora and faunathat are found naturally. Their social status, religions conciseness and regional practice have got the priority on the selection of food. The objectives of the study are to know the food habits and dietary system of the indigenous people and how these ethnic people mislay their traditional customs and accultured by the influence of other societies. Both the primary and secondary information collected from field survey and other sources have been considered for analyse the food habits and dietaries prevailing among the tribes in the district of Jalpaiguridistrict of West Bengal. The study reveals that the eating pattern of the tribal people mostly depend on the culture, customs, traditional knowledge, social connotations andother economic factors but the dominance of Bengali and Nepali culture has changes their food habits enormously. The forces of modernization and development induced their standard of living and they are coupled to be absorbed into the regional mainstream.