Taboos: Traditional beliefs and customs for resource management in the western Himalaya

575-581People residing in interior areas of the Himalaya are highly dependent on natural resources and thus have evolved their own beliefs and customs, the taboos, for conserving resources. Taboos form an important component of tribal lifestyle and guide sustainable utilization and management of natural resources. The present study was carried out in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh that are known for their rich bio-cultural diversity. The study aimed at documenting and classifying taboos prevalent in the area. For this, field surveys were carried out and interactions were held with the local people (n=210) using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed a prevalence of 22 taboos that were mainly related to forest, water, farmland, and food resources. Of the total taboos, the maximum belonged to the segment and method category taboos (32% each) while the minimum (5%) were species-specific taboos. Adherence to taboos is high and breaking them is believed to bring the wrath of God. They, thus, are important for resource management. Studies targeting the history of taboos and their policy implications are much desired

Taking a leaf from Jantri for traditional medicament- an ancient manuscript in Tankri

451-458The present paper highlights the importance vis-à-vis plight of a traditional script Tankri of Chamba, Himachal Pradesh. Through surveys in 70 villages that involved interviews with 550 residents, only one respondent was found to be versed in it. He uses an ancient manuscript named Jantri, scripted in Tankri, for prescribing medicines. Interactions and literature review revealed that Tankri was once a princely script of Chamba that now has no takers. Tankri originated from the Brahmic family of scripts and the Jantri holds information on uses of natural resources for curing human and animal related ailments. A total of 32 resources that include 24 of plant origin, 3 of animal origin, and 5 minerals were used for making formulations to cure a total of 13 diseases. Writing amulets in Tankri on tree bark using traditional ink was found to be a characteristic of the region. Unfortunately, the script is fast disappearing and so is the knowledge associated with it. Its disappearance would be a great loss to mankind. It is high time that conservation and decoding of such scripts is prioritized. Developing a database of knowledge holders and digitizing the information recorded in Tankri may be the starting point of this

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum