Aboriginal uses and management of ethnobotanical species in deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh state in India

A study on the native uses of ethnobotanical species was carried out in the south Surguja district of Chhattisgarh state in India with the major objective of identifying different food and medicinal plant species and also to understand their ongoing management and conservation. Through questionnaire and personal interviews, a total of 73 ethnobotanical species used by tribal and non-tribal communities were documented, of these 36 species were used in curing different types of diseases and 22 were used as edible food plants. This rich traditional knowledge of local people has an immense potential for pharmacological studies. The outside forces, at present, were mainly blamed to change the traditional system of harvesting and management of ethnobotanical species. The destructive harvesting practices have damaged the existing populations of many ethnobotanical species viz., Asparagus racemosus, Dioscorea bulbifera, Boswellia serrata, Buchnania lanzan, Sterculia urens and Anogeissus latifolia. The sustainable harvesting and management issues of ethnobotanical species are discussed in view of their conservation and management

Ethnomedicinal botany of the Apatani in the Eastern Himalayan region of India

This paper investigates the wealth of medicinal plants used by the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. Apatani have traditionally settled in seven villages in the Ziro valley of Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh in the Eastern Himalayan region of India. The present study has resulted in the documentation of 158 medicinal plant species used by the Apatani group of villages. These medicinal plant species were distributed across 73 families and 124 genera. Asteraceae was the most dominant family (19 species, 11 genera) of medicinal plants, followed by Zingiberaceae, Solanaceae, Lamiaceae and Araceae. For curing ailments, the use of aboveground plant parts was higher (80%) than the belowground plant parts in the Apatani group of villages. Of the aboveground plant parts, leaf was used in the majority of cases (56 species), followed by fruit. Different belowground plant forms such as root, tuber, rhizome, bulb and pseudo-bulb were used by Apatani as a medicine. About 52 types of ailments were cured by using these 158 medicinal plant species. The results of this study are further discussed in the changing socio-economic contexts

Livestock predation by common leopard in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, India: human-wildlife conflicts and conservation issues

We investigate livestock predation by the common leopard (Panthera pardus) and emerging conflicts between this species, local people, and wildlife authorities at the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Himalayan region of India. We scrutinized secondary data that were collected by wildlife authorities; we also conducted informal interviews of villagers living within sanctuary, and wildlife staff to understand various human–leopard conflicts. Leopard density was approximately 0.33/km2 in the sanctuary. Leopards killed 1,763 domestic animals, about 90% of which were cattle, during a 14-year period. Within the sanctuary, leopards killed 1 person and injured 9 others. This high depredation rate may be due to many factors, including low density of wild prey species in the sanctuary. The high level of livestock depredation by leopards in and around the sanctuary has caused severe conflicts

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Current Status of Medicinal Plants used by Traditional Vaidyas in Uttaranchal State of India

The current status of medicinal plants used by traditional Vaidyas was studied in Uttaranchal state of India. Information was gathered using semi-structured questionnaires among 60 traditional Vaidyas. They were questioned about the types of ailments treated with plants and the preparation of herbal medical formulations. A total of 243 herbal medical formulations prepared by Vaidyas treating 73 different ailments were documented. Plants were the major ingredients in these medical formulations. 156 medicinal plant species were documented during the survey. Of these 55% were cultivated and 45% were wild species. Of the cultivated species 80% were found growing in the kitchen gardens and 20% in the agricultural fields. The frequency of use of kitchen garden species was highest in preparing the medical formulations as in 243 formulations the relative frequency of use of such species was 87%. The relative frequency of use of the medicinal plants growing in the wild was 55% in preparing herbal medical formulations. There was a sharp decline in the number of traditional Vaidyas through generations. The loss of knowledge on preparing medicine was due to several reasons including the number of Vaidyas coming forward to adopt this traditional healing practice professionally

Indigenous water conservation technology of Sumari village, Uttaranchal

394-396An indigenous water conservation technology was studied in Sumari village of Pauri district, Uttaranchal. Since, the village had high population and low water quantity, therefore, they had developed an indigenous mechanism in such a way so that the available water could be managed properly for the use of humans and livestock. The indigenous technology developed by villagers is termed as Nawn and Chaunree systems of water management and conservation. The present paper investigates in detail about the Nawn and Chaunree systems of water conservation

Herbal treatment for snakebites in Uttarakhand state of India

Plants used in the treatment of snakebites were surveyed in the Uttarakhand state of India, using a questionnaire. The herbal practitioners were interviewed and information on snakebite treatments, using medicinal plants were collected from the traditional healers, locally called as vish vaidyas. The study documents 56 medicinal plant species, of which most of the species (93 %) are used for the treatment of snakebites and some species are used to cure dog and scorpion bite, traditionally. The use of herbs was highest, followed by trees and shrubs for this purpose. Before treatment the vish vaidya makes sure the identity of poisonous or non-poisonous type of snakebites on the basis of claims made by the patient over the taste of plants given. The taste of plant (mainly neem, Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) if claimed other than its normal taste by the patient then it is considered the bite of venomous snake. Thorough clinical testing of plants as used by vish vaidyas may help to standardize the efficacy of herbal drugs in curing venomous snake bites, which result into loss of thousands of human life in India

Ethnobotany and ethnoconservation of <i style="">Aegle marmelos</i> (L.) Correa

537-540The paper highlights the ethnobotany and ethnoconservation of Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa, generally known as Bael. Of 66 ethnobotanical uses of bael documented, 48 were found to be medicinal and 18 were of other ethnobotanical purposes. The importance of bael in ethnomedicine and for religious purposes is of utmost significance. Almost all parts of bael tree are used in preparing herbal medicine. The most common use of bael is to cure the gastrointestinal disorders. Historically, certain ethnoconservation norms have been set-aside with a view to conserve such an important tree species for its long-term sustainability