MRP Dr. Athawle
Short Summery of Minor Research Project in Botany
Name and address of the : Dr.P.S.ATHAVALE
Principal Investigator Asstt.Prof(S.G.)
Department of Botany
Bhalerao Science College,
Saoner-440 023 (M.S.)
2. Name and address of the Institution : Bhalerao Science College,
Saoner-440 023 (M.S.)
3. UGC Approval No. & Date : File No. 47-072/12(WRO)
dated 25th Feb. 2013.
4.Date of Implementation : From 1st April 2013 to
30th April 2015
5.Tenure of the project : Two years
6.Total grant allocated : Rs. 1, 15,000/- (Rs. One lac fifteen
thousand only)
7.Total grant received : Rs. 85,000/-
(Rs. Eighty-five thousand only).
8.Final expenditure : Rs.91,034/-
(Rs.Ninetyone thousand thirtyfour only)
9.Title of Research Project : “Survey on Ethno-medicinal & Phyto-
sociological plants of Saoner Tehsil
& their phyto-chemical analysis”
10. No. of publications out of the project:
1. “ Ethno-medicinal plants of Saoner tehsil of Nagpur district”
Dr.P.S.Athavale, Department of Botany, Bhalerao Science College, Saoner.
District-Nagpur.
Vision Research Journal for Life Sciences: Vol.1.Issue IV
(July 2015 to Dec.2015) ISSN 2348-5817 pp.15-21.
Objective of the project:
i) Collection of ethno medicinal plants
of the Saoner tehsil and nearby adjoining area.
ii) Investigation of ethno medicinal, phytosociological information from
tribals and medicine men of the area.
Weather objectives were achieved:Information on ethno-medicinal plants was collected from Saoner tehsil by visiting various villages. Help of local contact persons was taken. Ten medicine men provided the information on the ethno medicinal and phytosociological plants.Valuable information of 83 plants could be collected.
Summary
People in the prehistoric times used plants quite intuitively for food, shelter, and curing their many bodily disorders and thereby kept their health in perfect state of fitness and lived a long life. The medicinal plants played a very important role from times immemorial among the literates and the highly civilized men and women in the folklores, superstitions, traditions, various rituals, wearing of amulets, with craft & chanting of mantras connected with healing of diseases, warding off influence of evil spirits, and changing of fortunes in ones favor all of which is still practiced by men and women of the east and the west, not to speak of tribals.
As regards the herbal medicine, plants have played a significant role as a potent & safe medicine not only in India but also in the developed countries. In India it is estimated that 70% population depend upon the plants for the primary health care specially those residing in the remote areas, like tribals and other forest dwellers. The Nagpur district is bounded on the north by Chhindwara & Seoni districts of the Madhya Pradesh. The Saoner Tehsil is adjacent to the Chhindwara district of the M.P on the north and the area is rich in forest cover. The border line villages of that area are very near to the forest .Because of difficulty to access that area, it is practically unexplored from the point of view of this kind of survey. Keeping this in view the survey of ethno- medicinal plants of Saoner tehsil was undertaken. Information on 83 plants could be gathered from the area.
From the data, the Principal investigator felt that the information given by many of the medicine men is trustworthy as their observations and uses matched with the other available literature on the subject. The Principal Investigator observed that most of the medicine men of the area are senior citizens and the present study gave a timely opportunity to record their expertise.
The study indicates that the people residing especially in the remote areas have to depend upon the services of the traditional medicine men. Because of the additional burden on the land use due to increasing human population, the vegetation cover in general may show decline in number. Hence it is necessary to preserve our wild medicinal plants and their conservation should not be ignored.
However, in future, much efforts and time is to be devoted to know about the locally available medicinal plants.
The area is rich from the floristic point of view also.
In depth study of the remote area of the Saoner Tehsil adjoining the Madhya Pradesh border may add to the Flora of the district. In future such studies and efforts should be undertaken.