Herbal medicine as a live practice for treating livestock ailments by indigenous people: A case study from the Konar community of Tamil Nadu

Konar, an ethnic group of Yadav community, with cattle raising as its major occupation, is known for treating its cattle ailments using a wide range of traditional herbal medicines. The use of herbal medicine for human ailments has dwindled over the past few decades with the advent of allopathy, and if it is still being used as a viable practice for livestock ailment is not well known. The present study examines this issue by documenting the herbal plants used in ethno-veterinary practices by the Konar community. The study was carried out employing a questionnaire between May 2015 and April 2016 sampling 200 people from the Konar community. Data on cattle ailments and ethno-veterinary properties of plant species were analyzed and summarized using descriptive statistics. The study documented that Konar community uses 38 plant species belonging to 23 families as medicine for 20 ailments prevailing among the livestock. Curcuma longa, Azadirachta indica, Vitex negundo, Bambusa arundinacea, Justicia adhatoda and Zingiber officinale were the most commonly used plants either independently or in combination. Among them, Curcuma longa (30%) and Azadirachta indica (21%) had the highest usage. Of the 20 ailments reported, foot and mouth disease was the most common ailment (20%) followed by diarrhea (8%) and horn avulsion (8%). Documentation of this indigenous knowledge is valuable for the communities for wider use of traditional practices in treating livestock ailments. This study shows that traditional medicine, mainly involving the use of medicinal plants, is playing a significant role in meeting the livestock healthcare needs of the Konar ethnic groups in Tamil Nadu, and hence is a viable practice. Easy access to herbal resources and their free or low cost along with acceptance to traditional herbal medicine and lack of modern healthcare facilities in the rural areas are viewed by the community as the reasons for herbal treatment being continued as a viable practice by the konars for cattle ailments. The knowledge documented from the livestock producers—Konar—could also be used to manage the country's livestock healthcare system, and improve the lives and livelihoods.