Traditional treatment system of Bastar district

The role of a traditional indigenous medicine man, in the tribal community is much more extensive than of a city physician. In tribal areas due to the less availability of allopathic health care facilities and costly medicines, people also go for folk practitioner's treatment which is locally and easily available. The tribes of Bastar district are known for their unique and distinctive tribal culture, folk treatment and heritage in all over the world. The paper highlights the folk Practitioners, their status, education, training, nature of visit, methods of treatment with the various tribes of the region.

To assess the tribal's folk healing practices and knowledge, data were collected by household surveys of sample villages, focused discussion with elder members of villagers, folk practitioners of the village and their indigenous medicine personals.

Present studies, therefore bear special significance, to the study of indigenous beliefs and folk practices regarding health and disease of Bastar district as well as in India, with a systematic recording the tribal knowledge of folk medicine