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The indigenous and ethnic people of the world have learnt to live in most hostile environmental condition in this universe. The most interesting feature associated with these indigenous and ethnic has been found that, they live in localities which are immensely rich in biodiversity. It is estimated that about 300 million indigenous people are living in world, out of which nearly half i.e. 150 million are living in Asia, about 30 million of which are living in Central and South America and a significant number of them are living in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Africa, and Soviet Union. A list of some of these prominent ethnic and indigenous people is presented in table -1. These ethnic and indigenous people have played a vital role in conservation of environmental management and development process as they posse’s traditional knowledge which has been useful in Eco-restoration. It has been noticed that these people know how to live with harmony in nature.
In India, 68 million people belonging to 227 ethnic group and comprising of 573 tribal communities derived from six racial stocks namely - Negroid, Proto- Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean, West Breachy and Nordic exists in different part of the country (Pushpgandhan 1). These ethnic people mostly the indigenous tribals live close in the vicinity of forests and have managed and conserved the biodiversity of their localities since long time. These tribals take shelter from forest and utilize wild edible plants both raw and cooked. The flower and fruits are generally eaten raw where as tubers, leaves and seeds are cooked. Tribals utilize forest produce, forest timber and fuelwood. These tribals are living in forest since ages and have developed a kind of affinity with forests.
India is a country with large ethnic society and has immense wealth due to which it is rich in biodiversity. There are 45,000 species of wild plant out of which 9,500 species are ethnobotanically important species. Of these 7,500 species are in medicinal use for indigenous health practices. About 3,900 plant species are used by tribals as food (out of which 145 species comprise of root and tubers, 521 species of leafy vegetables, 101 species of bulbs and flowers, 647 species of fruits), 525 species are used for fiber, 400 species are used as fodder, 300 species are used in preparation and extraction of chemicals which are used as naturally occurring insecticides and pesticides, 300 species are used for extraction of gum, resins, dyes and perfume (Arora, 2). In addition to these a number of plants are used as timber, building material and about 700 species are culturally important from moral, cultural, religious, aesthetic and social point of view of. Indian sub-contient is one of the twelve mega-centres of biodiversity representing two of the eighteen hotspots of biological diversity one occurring in Western Ghat and another in North- Eastern Himalaya (Zeven and Zhikovsky 3). Floristically 141 endemic genera belonging to over 47 families of higher plant occur in India In India 11.95% of the world’s biodiversity has been conserved by ethnic people in many ways(Arora,4). Botanical survey of India has reported 46,214 plant species are found in India of global flora of these 17,500 represents flowering plants. Thirty seven of these are endemic and found in North -East of India (Arora, 4).
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