Authors : V. J. Somani
Page Nos : 19-23
Description :
Malnutrition is a curse to the humanity. It is a state Malnutrition is lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right things, or being unable to use the food that one does eat. India has more malnourished children than the Sub-Saharan countries. The proportion of malnourished children is more in the tribal than in other category of population. The Dang district of Gujarat is having 94 % of its population belonging to Scheduled Tribe. A large number of children below 5 years age are reported to be suffering from chronic malnourishment. The district have rich flora. It has 1276 taxa (1266 species and 10 varieties) belonging to 780 genera and 154 families of Angiosperm. Tribal people use around 32 wild plants as their food in addition to the cultivated verities. Such wild plants and traditional cultivated food plants have potential to eliminate malnourishment. The paper reviews nutritional potentials of some of the wild plants used by the tribals of the Dangs.
Keywords: Malnutrition, tribal children, biodiversity conservation.
