Plants used for stupefying fishes by Tharus of Udham Singh Nagar Uttarakhand, India
Rajni Mishra, S.C. Sharma and Alka Sharma
P.G. Department of Botany, G.F. College, Shahjahanpur-242001 (India)
ABSTRACT
Tharus population is mainly concentrated in the villages of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Agriculture is the main occupation of tharus, but fishing is an alternative occupation. They use 14 plant species belonging to 10 families for catching fishes. They have indigenous knowledge about the plants and their parts. They employ different parts of plants as roots (one species), leaves (two species), tubers (one species), stem bark (6 species), whole plant (2 species), fruit pulp (one species), fruit (one species) to stupefy fish. Millettia auriculata Baker, Polygonum serrulatum Lagasc. and Xeromphis spinosa (Thumb.) Keay are the new reports from the area.