8. TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL WISDOM AND MANAGEMENT OF BIORESOURCES AMONG GADDI COMMUNITY OF CHAMBA by BITTU RAJPOOT1, PANKAJ GUPTA2 AND VIJAY KUMAR SHARMA3

Abstract

Forests act as main source of food, fiber and building materials required for the survival and income generation by the indigenous people besides acting as safety net at the time of difficulty. Living in vicinity to these resources and their consistent use enables the Gaddi communities to evolve a mechanism for the protection and sustainable utilization of bio-resources. The indigenous wisdom is expressed in various cultural practices of local people and constitutes an integral component of Gaddi community. Generally known as conventional ecological wisdom, such wisdom is used by the Gaddis to develop bio-resource management systems, procedures and practices so as to ensure the continuous supply of forest products and other benefits. This paper is an outcome of the study conducted on Gaddi community living in selected panchayats of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. The forest conservation is an important component of Gaddi’s conservation practices developed over the years and passed down from one generation to another. The management practices followed by Gaddis have evolved under different biophysical and cultural settings and thus vary from rest of the society. The study enumerated the ethno-botanical uses of 74 plants, in addition to conservational practices followed by them and concluded that natives inhabiting the study area possess rich ethno-ecological knowledge, which needs to be preserved.
KEY WORD: Traditional Ecological Wisdom, Bioresources, Pastoralism, Ethno-biological.