PJB-2023-26
Cross-cultural ethnobotany in the Trans-Himalaya: medicinal plants’ utilization among Baltis and Broqpas of Kharmang District, India-Pakistan border
Basharat Hussain
Abstract
Human communities inhabiting the political borders live a transition life due to several socio-political and geo-climatic factors. The studies on ethnobotany underpin the understanding of status, transmission, and threats to the plant-based folk knowledge. Current study was conducted at the highly elevated Pakistan-India borders in the mountains of western Himalaya to address the medicinal plant diversity, traditional knowledge and inter-cultural comparison of Balti and Broqpa communities. The field surveys were carried out during 2021–2022 and purposive sampling techniques were employed for respondents. We used semi-structured and open-ended interviews to collect the ethnomedicinal data. Relative frequency of citations (RFCs), use value (UV) were calculated and Venn diagrams were adopted to analyze the collected data. In the one forty (140) interviews including 90 (64.28%) Baltis and 50 (35.71%) Broqpas recorded 60 medicinal plant species belonging to 56 genera and 35 families. Asteraceae (5 spp.), Lamiaceae (5 spp.) and Apiaceae (4 spp.) were the most represented families. Delphinium brunonianum, Thymus linearis, Pleurospermum can Hymenolaena candollei, Corydalis adiantifolia and Seriphidium brevifolium were medicinal taxa with maximum RFCs and UV. The plants with the highest UV (1.2-1.65) and RFC (0.97-1) include Balti and Broqpa reported 22 botanical taxa with common medicinal uses, whereas 34 taxa were exclusive to Baltis and 4to Broqpas community. Collectively, both ethnic groups still hold significant volume of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. It demands the retention, preservation, and practice of the documented knowledge due to uncertain border situations, outmigration, permeating allopathic drugs and abundant of low scale agro-pastoral practices.
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