Indigenous Knowledge

The term “Indigenous Knowledge” is the product of resentment against Western market forces’ attitude to monopolize trade by patenting natural products of non-European Countries in the last decade.

The term is synonymous to the term Primitive Knowledge used by anthropologists who studied Tribal (primitive) communities globally. Every tribal community developed their indigenous knowledge in long span of time through day to day experience for survival with nature.

Looking to this, from functional point of view of B.K.Malinowaski, the tribal community developed their knowledge to satisfy primarily their basic needs like food, shelter, cloth, and acquiring immunity or cure against disease by using herbal medicines available in their ecological settings.

Jharkhand is an area with miraculous herbs and tribal culture, Jharkhand is rich in medicinal flora. The Tribal medicine men are generous with their knowledge and offer their medicinal secrets with open hearts

This paper is to suggest the locally suitable strategy based on local ecological resources, for
strengthening the scope of practice of ethno-medicinal plants among the tribal communities using self help group strategy in Jharkhand.

Ethno-Medicinal plants play a central role as traditional medicines used in many cultures and tribes. The use of plant-based medicines is as old as human history. Most cultures in the world have traditionally developed expertise on plant-based therapy. This expertise has been developed down the centuries by empirical methods. With the advancement of modern medicine, especially allopath, traditional plant based therapy declined in terms of preference, especially amongst the relatively well to do people. Nonetheless, according to estimates, about 80% of the world’s rural population relies on herbal traditional medicines for their primary health care.

The aim of this paper is to explore scope of medicinal plant cultivation in Jharkhand and their processing and marketing through the formation of Self-Help Groups of Tribal women living below poverty line and training them in traditional medicinal plant agriculture. It is essential to form SHGs and to strengthen them by informing, training and equipping members with the medicinal plantation and processing skills so that they can have access and control over the resources to improve the quality of not only their lives but also that of their families and communities.

The paper is base on qualitative study conducted by the author in Jharkhand state of India in 2009-10.Paper have great significance with the topic of the panel as it suggests new strategy for ecological resource management for sustainability of the valuable traditional environmental knowledge that indigenous people possess through interacting with their proximate ecosystem.