Medicinal Plants of Arunachal Pradesh: Traditional Uses, Conservation Strategies, and Economic Viability in the Galo Tribe

ABSTRACTThe Eastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh is one of the most bio-cultural diverseregions of India. It has also a rich forestry component that sustains a large number of medicinaland aromatic plants, which have been an integral part to the health care system of the indigenouscommunities. The Galo community is one of the major tribes in the state with rich ethnobotanicalknowledge on identification, collection, preparation and utilization of medicinal plants.Objectives: The study explores to analyse the traditional knowledge and uses of medicinalplants, to examine the major threats to medicinal plants and their conservation status and toassess the economic viability and livelihood potential of medicinal plants among the Galo tribeof Arunachal Pradesh. Methodology: The article uses a descriptive and analytical method withthe main sources of the information in the form of secondary and primary sources such asethnobotanical research, government policy documentation, and institutional sources related tomedicinal plants and biodiversity protection as well as special focus is given to ethnobotanicalstudies done with 200 Galo households in West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. Resultsand Interpretations: Sustainable Medicinal Plant Economy = f [Biodiversity Conservation(BC), Traditional Knowledge (TK), Scientific Validation (SV), Community Institutions(CI),Value Addition (VA), Market Access (MA)]. Conclusion: Medicinal plants are a uniquespecies that intersect the areas of biodiversity, traditional knowledge, health, culture and rurallivelihood in the Galo tribe in particular, such plants form an integral part of the traditionalknowledge of the tribe in general in Arunachal Pradesh. Hence the study suggests an integratedcommunity based approach which entails in-situ conservation, ex-situ cultivation, sustainableharvesting, scientific validation, traditional knowledge documentation, benefit sharing, valueaddition and institutional support. The practice could help medicinal plants from an everdecreasing forest resource into sustainable livelihood tools and sustain the cultural and ecologicalbase of Galo society.