156
S. Nautiyal et al.
Bhotiya’s summer dwelling , o Bhotiya’s winter dwelling, x Other areas Snow
covered areas
Picture 1 Dwelling of Bhotiya communities of Central Himalaya, Uttarakhand. Source Nautiyal
et al. 2001
13.7 ha land (0.4% of the total land) belonging to only Tolchha and Marchha is
cultivating medicinal plants (see Table 4).
A variety of forest produce (kg/capita/year dry wt basis) collected from different
purposes by the three sub-communities of Bhotiya tribe of the Central Himalaya
is presented below (see Table 5). Medicinal plants of 100 varieties are used by
the communities and out of these plants, 97 species are used for curing various
types of ailments such as: common cold, muscular & rheumatic pain, head-aches,
gastric/liver disorders etc. and 16 varieties of species are stored for family use. To
cure various ailments, majority of population belonging to all sub-communities of
Bhotiya tribe still depend on herbal medicine (see Fig. 3) and less number of people
prefer allopathic treament.
Bhotiya communities generate income from natural resources including by selling
medicinal plants is presented below (see Table 6).