Traditional herbal therapies: Tribal indigenous knowledge for sustainable development

Traditionally India has been a sustainable society. Education for sustainable development allows us to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. There is a basic difference between education about sustainable development and education for sustainable development. It has three components: environment, society, and economy. Population explosion and resource use are thought to jeopardize a sustainable future, and education is linked both to fertility rate and resource consumption. Human beings are at the centre for sustainable development and the environment protection is an integral part of the development. Folk medicine has been emphasized as one of the strategies of sustainable resource management in order to achieve sustainable development. Before the world community realized the importance of indigenous knowledge in sustainable resource management, this knowledge system has been influencing resource management practices of traditional communities like the tribes for securing their sustainable livelihoods since time immemorial.

Tribal communities in particular have been playing a vital role in preservation and management of natural resources within the frame of their indigenous knowledge. There are atleast 700 tribal communities living in different national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserve forests in India. They protect, regenerate, conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use. Because for living in dense forest areas they are completely dependent over the forest products for their treatment and they know the better uses of forest plant and their medicinal use. The ethno-forestry encompasses the skills, experiences and insights of the indigenous people living in forests applied not only to improve their livelihood but for maintaining ecosystem and its biodiversity. Today, the indigenous people are treasure house of immense knowledge and capability which they utilize to maintain their own livelihood and also the sustainability of the ecosystem. They have played a vital role in the regeneration, conservation and sustainable development of the forest.

This paper is based on fieldwork in Dooars region based on interview and participant observation and review of relevant secondary literature. This tract of land comprises of diverse tribal communities of which the major tribes are Rabha, Rajbanghsi, Santal, Munda, Oraon, Polly, Lepcha etc. Only and one endemic tribe of the state, Toto is also inhabited in the area at their ethnic village Totopara in Madarihat subdivision of Jalpaiguri district.