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Use of Animals and Animal Products in Traditional Health Care Systems in District Kachchh, Gujarat

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Use of Animals and Animal Products in Traditional Health Care Systems in District Kachchh, Gujarat Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 2(4), October 2003, pp. 346-356 Use of animals and animal products in traditional health care systems in District Kachchh, Gujarat Leena Gupta, C S Sil ori *, Nisha Mi stry and A M Di xit Guj arat Institute of Desert Ecology, P.B. No. 83. M undra Road Opposite Changles hwa r Temple, Bhuj 370 00 I Email : [email protected] Received 20 Janua ry 2003 T he prese nt arti cle describes the trad itional knowledge of local com munities on et hn ozoology in district Kac hchh. Through struct ured ques tionna ire survey a total of 194 responden ts from 29 villages we re interviewed across di fferent co mmunities and socio­ economic stra ta of the sampled villages. Res pondent s listed about 34 animal and bird spec ies, including 28 wild and 6 domes ti c, which are used in pri ma ry hea lth care needs of human be ing s and li vestoc k and for other purposes also. Blood and flesh are mos t commonly used animal products to treat diseases such as asthma, cough, rheu matism and hea ling of extern al injuries. Of th e wild animal and bird spec ies, Indian Wild A ss and Common Indian Monitor L iza rd are listed as endangered while Chinkara, Indian Flap Shell Turtle and Pea fowl are listed as vulnera ble in th e Reel Data Book of Indian A nimals. The findings are more important in view of th e fac t th at if th e remedial meas ures, for which these animals are used, are not proved sc ienti fi ca lly. the com mon man shou ld be made aware of thi s, which in futu re will signi fi can tl y help in conse rva tion of ra re and endangered animals. Keywords: Traditional kn owledge, Ethnozoology, Eth noveterinary practi ces, Kac hchh. 3 7 Since time immemorial ex tensive use of animal based medi cations - . lt has been pl ants, ani mals an d minerals has been documented that in Un ani system of made in trad itio nal med icines. A lot of medi ci nes about 200 drugs of animal efforts has gone into documentati on, use, ori gin are described whi ch are claimed to identification and va lidati on of plant be beneficial fo r the treatment of various 8 based traditi onal medi cines but studi es on ailments . Similarly in Ayurveda also most of th e animal based medicin es are there is desc ripti on of use of several sporad ic, despi te th e fact th at traditional ly animal based drugs parti cularl y fro m many animal based drugs are cow, bu ffa lo, elephant , camel, ass, goat 9 ad mi nis tered all over th e world u . In and sheep . Entire organi sms or their Unani and Ay urvedi c system of fl es h, fat, excreti ons, bones, teeth, medi cin es th ere are descriptions of many fe athers, hair, horn s and shell s are used as medi cines and in oth er purposes. These *Correspondent aut hor are used either sin gly or in compound GUPTA eta!.: USE OF ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS IN KACHCHH 347 11 formulations and prepared in a varfety of plant species , while the faunal diversity forms i.e.: powder; ash, soups, syrup, is represented by about more than 300 ointments, liniments, etc. birds, 51 mammals, 44 reptiles, 7 amphibians and about 115 fishes and 12 The present article is an offshoot of an prawns • ongoing study on the ethnobotanical From socio-cultural point of view, documentation in district Kachchh of district Kachchh exhibits great ethnic and Gujarat. While documenting traditional cultural diversity. According to 2001 knowledge on plant based medicines, the provisional census the total human villagers also refeiTed to the use of population of the district is about 15 several wild and domestic animals and Jakhs. More than 70% of the population birds for curing various diseases. Since belongs to Hindu community, followed no records on this aspect are available in by Muslims, Jains and others. Among the the past, the authors used this opportunity Hindus, Rajput, Brahmin, Lohana, to document the traditional knowledge of Baniya, Bhatiya, Ahir, Kanbi, Lobar and local communities regarding the use of Charan are the chief castes while among animals (ethnozoology) for different Muslims, Sangar, Sodha, Haliputra, purposes, including medicinal, in district Raisiputra are major clans. Around 19% Kachchh. of the total population belongs to socio­ economically weaker section of the Study Area society, including scheduled castes District Kachchh, covering an area of (12%), mainly represented by Meghwals about 45,645 km2 is the second largest and scheduled tribes (7 %) represented by district of the country. It is spread Koli, Paradhi and Bhils. Animal between 22°41 '11" to 24°41 '47" N and husbandry, dry land agriculture, fishing, 68"09'46" to 71 °54'47" E in the western mining and daily wage labour are major state of Gu jarat. Kachchh falls in the arid income sources for the locals. tract of the country and covers about 73% of the total arid area of the state. About Methodology 2 51 % (23,310 krn ) of the total area of The structured questionnaire survey di strict is covered by saline marshes method was employed in the selected known as Greater and Little Rann of vi ll ages to collect information on the Kachchh. Because of the predominance traditional knowledge on the use of of arid region, district Kachchh has been animals and their products as medicines classified as a separate biotic province in primary health care system. A total of '3A' i.e, Kachchh Desert of Indian Desert about 194 respondents from 29 villages 10 Bio-geographic. Zone . The were interviewed to generate the topographical variation in the district has ethnozoological information. The resulted in to the diversity of habitats and respondents belonged to wide range of flora and fauna. The floral diversity of the communities, including Scheduled Tribe district is represented by more than 650 represented by Koli, Paradhi, 348 INDIAN J TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDG E, VOL 2, No.4, OCTOBER 2003 Wandhakoli, Bhils, Bhil-paradhi, and other purposes. Rest of the Scheduled Caste, Muslims, Darbar respondents knew only about the use of (Rajput) and Brahmins across different domestic animals for medicinal and other age groups ranging from 15 years to purposes. Majority of the 30 respondents, above 85 years. Through questionnaire mainly belonging to ST, Muslims and SC survey, the information was gathered on communities, were either actually various aspects of ethnozoology, catching or killing wild animals and birds including basic socio-economic structure or using them for medicinal and other of the respondent, the knowledge on the purposes (Table 2). Of these, 13 ( 42%) use of the animals, type of animal/animal respondents claimed that they catch or parts used for medicinal purposes, other kill the wild animals using their purposes, catching of wild animals, and traditional skill, although none of the the manner in which the medicines are respondents disclosed the traditional administered. Based on the local names, methods of animal catching during the identification of animals and birds interviews. Majority (62%) of such was confirmed by showing the coloured respondents belonged to the ST 13 14 plates to the respondents ' • communities such as Koli, Bhil and Paradhi, while some of the Muslims Result (23%) and Harijan (15 %) respondents Ethnozoological knowledge also responded positively on the catching Of the total 194 respondents, 69 (35%) or killing of animals and birds. responded positively about having traditional knowledge on ethnozoology. Use of animals for treating human Among these, higher proportion of ailments knowledgeable respondents was recorded The respondents listed a total of 34 from Scheduled caste (SC), Scheduled animal and bird species, including 6 tribes• (ST) and Muslims communities domestic and 28 wild which are used by (Table I). Of the total 69 respondents, 30 the local people. Maximum of these (43%) responded positively about having animals belonged to mammalian group the knowledge of use of wild animals, ( 16), followed by birds (8), marine besides domestic animals for medicinal animals (7), including crustaceans and Table I - Ethnozoological knowledge across different communities in di strict Kachchh Community Total respondents No. of respondents having knowledge Scheduled tribes (ST) 37 19(51 %) Scheduled caste (SC) 22 12 (55%) Darbar 53 II (21 %) Muslims 62 25 (40%) Rabari 20 2 (10%) Total 194 69 (35%) GUPTA era/.: USE OF ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS IN KACHCHH 349 Tabl e 2- Kn owledge status of the respondents regarding use of wild anim als Kn owledge status Communi! ):' Total ST sc Muslims Catching/killing and usin g themselves for medi cinal and other 8 2 3 13 purposes Depending on others for animal/animal products but having 4 6 5 15 knowledge of usin g them for medi cinal and other purposes Neither catching. nor using but ha ving kn owledge of using for 2 0 0 2 medi cinal and other QUrQoses fishes, and the rest were reptiles (3). (locally known as Ranai) on marine Regarding the ethnomedicinal use, 29 fishes is used with oil for treatment of ear animals and birds and their body parts are ailments of human beings. Cuttle Bone of used for treating human and livestock Sepia, a Cephalopod, locally known as ailments, while 10 species are used for 'Samudrafin' is used in powder form to other purposes, described later. Local cure wounds. The Crustaceans have very people use different parts of animal body high protein contents specially the free for medicinal purposes in different ways amino acids; therefore their consumption (Table 3).
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