Medicinal uses of animals as an important element of the traditional knowledge of the Wancho tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India
Ankita Sharma1, Durlov Lahon2, Bhaskar Gogoi3
1Research Scholar, Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh-786004 (India) 2Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014 (India) 3Research Scholar, Department of Political Science, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014 (India) Email: durlovlahon20@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In almost every human community, animals have been used as medicinal resources for the prevention and relief of several diseases. While considered by many to be superstition, the importance of conventional animal-based medicine can’t be ignored, because pharmaceutical companies have been methodically tested it as a source of drugs for modern medical science. The present study aims to explain the traditional knowledge of the Wancho people of Arunachal Pradesh towards the medicinal uses of animals and their parts. The ethnozoological data has been collected from 21 traditional healers and some local people who have experiences with the medicinal uses of animals. A total of 18 species of medical animals were collected and identified for treating numbers of human ailments, of which 37% are birds and their products, 26%are mammals and the remaining 21 % are insects features. They use these traditional medicines as a remedies of stomach aches, joint pain, headaches, cough, etc. The Wancho tribe of Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh, who still live in remote villages with limited modern medical facilities used various animal species located in their immediate surroundings and some remote areas to treat their diseases and improve their health. However, overexploitation of the animals they use threatens the survival of certain species and create habitat imbalances that influence the region’s humans and animals.