Cultural and Ecological Aspects of Plant Diversity of Imphal East Distrcit Manipur

Abstract

Plants are the basis of life on earth and are central to people s livelihood. The newlinewild floras of many countries contain a great variety of useful plants which have been newlinea valuable source of the basic needs. Millions of people in many developing countries newlinedo not have enough food to meet their daily requirements and many others are newlinedeficient in one or more micronutrients (FAO, 2004). The diversity in wild species newlineoffers variety in family diet and contributes to household food security. newline Wild edible plants are wild plants with one or more parts that can be used newlinefor food if gathered at the appropriate stage of growth, and properly prepared (Kallas, newline2010). Wild edible plants could be weeds growing in urban areas to native plants newlinegrowing in deep wilderness. Since pre-historic times, man has known to have newlineidentified the plants useful for their food from the natural stands. Man has the newlineintelligence edge over other animals and hence is able to screen the edible and newlinepoisonous plant parts by the process of trial and error method. newlineIndia is one of the world s 12 mega diversity centres with 47,147 plant newlinespecies including all lower groups (BSI, 2012) and is divided in 20 agro-ecozones. newlineAbout 800 wild plants are consumed as food chiefly by tribal communities (Singh and newlineArora, 1978). Out of the total wild edible species of plants, about 300 species occurs newlinein the north eastern part of India (Watt, 1889-99; Kanjilal, 1934-40; Singh and Arora, newline1978; Jain and Dam, 1979). The region has two biodiversity hotspots and Manipur newlinefalls in the Indo Myanmar global biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeier et al., 2004, newlineMyers et al., 2000) with tropical to sub-tropical and temperate forest. newlineDue to rapid destruction of forests and filling up of wetlands for expansion of newlineland area and developmental activities, most of these wild edible plants are becoming newlinerare and threatened. The traditional knowledge on the uses of wild edible plants is newlineeroding day by day among the youngsters. Therefore, research in the field of newlinedocumenting wild edible plants with