Living knowledge of the healing plants: Ethno-phytotherapy in the Chepang communities from the Mid-Hills of Nepal

Contribution of indigenous knowledge in developing more effective drugs with minimum or no side effects helped to realise importance of study of indigenous remedies and the conservation of biological resources. This study analysed indigenous knowledge regarding medicinal plants use among the Chepang communities from ward number 3 and 4 of Shaktikhor Village Development Committee located in the central mid hills of Nepal. Data were collected in a one-year period and included interviews with traditional healers and elders. Chepangs are rich in knowledge regarding use of different plants and were using a total 219 plant parts from 115 species including one mushroom (belonging 55 families) for medicinal uses. Out of these, 75 species had 118 different new medicinal uses and 18 of them were not reported in any previous documents from Nepal as medicinal plants. Spiritual belief, economy and limitation of alternative health facilities were cause of continuity of people's dependency on traditional healers. Change in socio-economic activities not only threatened traditional knowledge but also resource base of the area. Enforcement of local institution in management of forest resources and legitimating traditional knowledge and practices could help to preserve indigenous knowledge

Positive solution of extremal Pucci’s equations with singular and sublinear nonlinearity

In this paper, we establish the existence of a positive solution to {−M+λ,Λ(D2u)=μk(x)f(u)uα−ηh(x)uqu=0in Ωon ∂Ω, {−Mλ,Λ+(D2u)=μk(x)f(u)uα−ηh(x)uqin Ωu=0on ∂Ω, where ΩΩ is a smooth bounded domain in Rn, n≥1.Rn, n≥1. Under certain conditions on k,f and h,k,f and h, using viscosity sub- and super solution method with the aid of comparison principle, we establish the existence of a unique positive viscosity solution. This work extends and complements the earlier works on semilinear and singular elliptic equations with sublinear nonlinearity.by Jagmohan Tyagi and Ram Baran Verm

In the Shadows of the Himalayan Mountains : Persistent Gender and Social Exclusion in Development

Climate change in combination with socioeconomic processes and opportunities have an especially severe impact on people living in remote mountain areas of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. What is less well known is how changes in climate will affect in the quality of lives, livelihoods, and resources of diverse groups of people of the region. The chapter argues that it is not only important but also necessary to link climate science and climate interventions with relevant contextual experiences of the different groups of people due their differential experiences and vulnerabilities. The chapter provides illustrative cases studies to demonstrate the differential experiences and vulnerabilities of women and men as a result of the dynamics of gender relations in the context of climate change