A survey on socio-economic profile, constraints of traditional veterinary healers and documentation of ethno veterinary medicinal plants in the Kodiakkarai forest, Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Livestock is an integral part of the Indian economy contributing to empowerment and financial independency to the unemployed youth, "stay at home" women folk, landless and less land farmers waving for regular cash flow and better nutrition availability at all households. Yet, limited access to resources and modern veterinary healthcare facilities has led many livestock farmers to rely on traditional herbal remedies currently termed as ethno veterinary medicine for managing various livestock diseases widening the opportunity for the livestock sector, particularly in view of the increasing global interest in organic livestock production, where herbal remedies could serve as an important alternative to conventional veterinary treatments (Mayer et al.,2014) [6] . The use of such low-cost medicinal plants is widespread among organic livestock raisers (Lans et al., 2008) [4]. and promoted for their sustainable use (Mayer et al.,2014) [6] . The reservoir of this knowledge of medicinal plants for treatment termed Ethno Veterinary Medicine were the traditional veterinary healers. These traditional veterinary healers have a wealth of knowledge about medicinal plants their availability, dosage and mode of preparation for treatment for various ailments. Its through their efforts that ethno veterinary medicine are employed by livestock owners all over the world and has always stayed undermined. Again the knowledge of ethno veterinary medicine though practiced widely has been diminishing due to numerous reasons and needs efforts to identify, preserve and document the knowledge packages for the future. Hence, a study was carried out to document the socio-economic profile of traditional veterinary healers in Nagapattinam district and medicinal plants used by them from Kodiyakarai forest of Nagapattinam district.

Methodology

A total of 30 numbers of traditional veterinary healers were identified from Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu. Snow ball sampling technique was used to identify the traditional veterinary healers. The data were collected using a wellstructured interview schedule that focused on the socioeconomic profile of the traditional veterinary healers, Constraints of traditional veterinary healers and documentation of ethno veterinary medicinal plants found in the kodiyakarai forest, Nagapattinam district

Results and Discussion

Socio-economic profile of the traditional veterinary healers In Nagapattinam districts, majority (67%) of the traditional veterinary healers were female (Table 1). The reason being that, since mostly the women folk taking care of livestock rearing activities they learn about the treating livestock as well. But, Eiki et al., (2022) [2]. reported that most of the traditional veterinary healers in Kunune region, Namibia were males. As for the age, the average age of the traditional veterinary healers was 49 years. Again the percentage of traditional veterinary healers belonging to middle age category and old age category were equal (43.33 % each) with only 13 % of them belonging to young category. This study is in line with study of Jabber et al., 2006 in Pakisthan where the average age of the traditional veterinary healers was between 40 and 90 years. Majority of the families of traditional veterinary healers belong to small family size (60 %) and nuclear family type (76.67%) with only 26.67 per cent being above poverty line and the rest below poverty line. Also, more than 50 per cent household type of the traditional veterinary healers was found to be Semi-pucca type (53.33%) followed by kutcha type and pucca type of housing. Majority of the traditional veterinary healers belonged to Backward class (53.33 %) followed by the scheduled caste (40.00%) and most backward class (6.67%). Primary source of income for majority (60%) of the traditional veterinary healers were from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) followed by working as fishing labour, livestock rearing, mason, catering etc., The source of knowledge for the traditional veterinary healers of Nagapattinam district was mainly from their forefathers and family members that accounted for about 70 per cent. Cent per cent of the traditional veterinary healers were providing with their home town service and not out of station services. This could be attributed to most of them being females as they do not tend to move away from home with majority (83.33%) of them willing to serve as traditional veterinary healers for life and disseminate the knowledge to the next generation.

Ethno veterinary medicinal plants used for medicine preparation and treatment of various ailments documented from traditional veterinary healers.

The ethno veterinary herbal plants and ingredients used for preparation and treatment of various ailments from the Kodiyakarai forest of Nagapttinam districts were documented from the traditional veterinary healers. From this study, 44 plant species used for preparation of medicines for various ailments of livestock were documented Plant type, plant parts used, common name of the plant, botanical name and family name were also recorded and presented in table.:3 [8]. reported in his study at Uganda, South Africa that most commonly used medicinal plants use for preparation of medicines belong to family Fabaceae followed by Euphorbiaceae. While he results are contrary to the study of Sharma et al., (2022) [7]. wherein the predominant plant family he recorded n Uttarkhand, India was found to Laminaceae followed by Solanaceae and Asteraceae.

Conclusion

It could be concluded from the study that mostly the landless women acquired knowledge on ethno veterinary practices from their forefathers and served as traditional veterinary healers with their predominant secondary occupation being livestock farming. They also informed that identification, gathering and storage of medicinal plants were one among the few constraints faced. Also 44 plants belonging to 27 plant families were documented from the traditional veterinary healers. Leaves were the predominant plant part used for medicine preparation mostly in fresh form. Trees followed by herbs with majority of them found in the wild were used for making medicines. These socio-economic profile and constraints of Traditional veterinary healers and documentation of medicinal plants are crucial for the policy makers, extension agents, researchers and pharma companies may include the traditional veterinary healers while planning, production and dissemination of ethno veterinary medicine for the welfare of farming community.

References

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