Sambalpur, Sept 7: For generations, tribal communities have relied on traditional medicinal knowledge, using plants, animals and reptiles to prepare oils for treating a variety of ailments. But shrinking natural resources, changing lifestyles and the growing availability of modern medicines are putting this indigenous knowledge at risk.
The Centre for Regional Development and Tribal Studies Research Excellence at Sambalpur University has been documenting this traditional knowledge for several years under the leadership of Professor Arun Kumar Acharya. Studies among the Paudi Bhuyan, Munda and Kisan communities in Sundargarh and Deogarh districts have documented around 20 varieties of plant-, animal- and reptile-based medicinal oils.
These include Bhalia, Ping, Jatangi, Tol, Jada, Kusum, Karanja, Neem and wild mustard oils, along with preparations made from animals and reptiles such as snake, bear, wild fowl, goat and other locally sourced species.
Traditionally, these oils are used for ailments ranging from cough, arthritis, paralysis and skin disorders to burns, muscular pain, malaria, jaundice, eczema and snake bites.
But some of these remedies are now facing extinction. Raw materials required for oils such as Ram Jada, Shishu, Bendo, Sargi and Godhi are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the wild. Researchers point to declining rainfall, rising temperatures and longer summers as factors affecting several plant and animal species.
The knowledge itself is also vulnerable. Traditionally passed down orally from one generation to another, it is gradually being lost as younger people show less interest in traditional healing and modern healthcare becomes more accessible in tribal regions.
What is at stake is more than a collection of old remedies. It is a vast body of ecological and cultural knowledge built over generations.
Sambalpur University’s research centre is therefore focusing not only on documentation, but also on medicinal plant conservation, continuation of traditional practices and the social and economic empowerment of traditional practitioners.
Preserving this knowledge, researchers believe, will require protecting both the natural resources on which it depends and the communities that have kept it alive for generations.
