Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources Vol. 1 (1), March 2010, pp. 97-101

Piscicidal plants used by Gond tribe of Kawal wildlife sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh,

E N Murthy 1, Chiranjibi Pattanaik 2*, C Sudhakar Reddy 3 and V S Raju 1 1Plant Systematics Laboratory, Department of Botany, Kakatiya University, Warangal-506 009, Andhra Pradesh, India 2Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History, Deccan Regional Station, -500 017, Andhra Pradesh 3Forestry & Ecology Division, National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad- 500 625 Received 4 June 2008; Accepted 18 August 2009

The present paper highlights the use of 25 plant species for fish poison by the Gond tribe living in the Kawal wildlife sanctuary. Though most people from Gond tribe are engaged in fishing activities, they use their indigenous traditional knowledge to catch the fish by applying plant extracts. The piscicidal plants used by Gonds are arranged alphabetically along with botanical name followed by family name, local name, habit and plant part used.

Keywords: Andhra Pradesh, Fish poison, Gond tribe, Kawal wildlife sanctuary, Piscicidal plants. IPC code; Int. cl. 8  A61K 36/00, A01N 65/00

Introduction employed as fish poison 15-26 . No such work has been Plant poisons have been widely used by traditional documented from the tribal dominated societies all over the world as a means of catching district of Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, an attempt has fish. Plant extracts are referred to as botanicals and been made to document and enumerate the piscicidal when poisonous to fish are called piscicides 1. Such plants with existing traditional uses and practices in piscicidal plants contain different active ingredients the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) of Andhra known as alkaloids, resin, tannin, saponin, nicotine, Pradesh, India. This data may be useful in developing diosgenin, etc 2. However, these active ingredients are potential drugs for catching fishes, which is a regular toxic to fish at high concentrations and wear off practice in aquaculture industries. within a short time 3, 4 . Many plants/plant parts from different families have been applied for catching fish. Study Area Kawal wildlife sanctuary is situated in Adilabad Some plants contain compounds of various classes district of Andhra Pradesh (Fig. 1, Map). It is located that have insecticidal, piscicidal and molluscicidal 5-11 around 260 km from Hyderabad and lies between 19º properties . Synthetic organic compounds are 05' -19º 20' N latitude and 78º 32' -79º 12' E identified with problems of environmental resistance, longitude. It occupies an area of 892.23 sq km. It is pest resurgence and detrimental effects on non-target 12, 13 one of the oldest sanctuaries of the state declared organisms because of their non-degradability . The during 1965. Vegetation in the sanctuary exhibits a botanical insecticides are believed to be more classical example of southern tropical dry deciduous environment-friendly because they are easily 14 forests with predominantly species like Tectona biodegradable and leave no residues in the 11 grandis Linn. f. and its associates Anogeissus latifolia environment . The importance of ethnobotanical Wall. ex Bedd., Terminalia alata Heyne ex Roth, studies as cost-effective means of locating new and T. arjuna (Roxb.) Wight & Arn., Boswellia serrata useful plant compounds shows that commercial Roxb., Cleistanthus collinus (Roxb.) Benth. & Hook. synthetic drugs cost more than extractions from f., Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merrill, plants. Also, the use of botanicals has been found to Hardwickia binata Roxb., Haldinia cordifolia (Roxb.) aid fish cropping greatly as it saves time of fishing 1 Ridsd, Mitragyna parviflora (Roxb.) Korth., and increase easy handling . Ethnobotanists from Strychnos nux-vomica Linn., Chloroxylon swietenia different parts of India have documented plant species DC., Bombax ceiba Linn., Diospyros melanoxylon ______Roxb., etc. Various tribes inhabit in and around the *Correspondent author, E-mail: [email protected] sanctuary area but the major tribe is the Gond tribe 98 INDIAN J NAT PROD RESOUR, MARCH 2010

and have been provisionally identified by consulting the regional floras 28, 29 . The collected plant specimens were also matched with Herbarium of Regional Research Laboratory (RRL-B), Bhubaneswar, Orissa and deposited in the Herbarium of Botany Department (KUH), Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh.

Results and Discussion The list of plant species having piscicidal effects in the surveyed areas is enumerated alphabetically with botanical names with voucher number, family name, local name, locality of collection, habit, parts used and active ingredients (Table 1, Plate 1). A total of 25 plants were collected and identified during the field KAWAL WILDLIFE SANCTUARY investigation, which belong to 18 families and 24 genera. Tree has the highest diversity (15 species) followed by 5 shrubs, 4 herbs and one climber. The family with the most species used for this purpose is Rubiaceae (3 species) followed by Apocynaceae, Loganiceae, Fabaceae and Sterculiaceae with 2 species, and rest of the families is with single species. Stem bark of various plants (10 spp.) are used maximum times with seed (5 spp.) and fruit, leaves, rhizome and roots with 2 species each. Some plants like leaves of Holoptelia integrifolia (Roxb.) Planch, Fig. 1 Location map of the study area fruit of Balanites aegyptiaca (Linn.) Delile, seed of Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Oken, stem bark of who has developed unique indigenous knowledge Wrightia tinctoria (Roxb.) R. Br., seed of Strychnos related to the uses of plant resources due to constant nux-vomica Linn. and S. potatorum Linn. are mostly association with the forests. The climate of the area is preferred for fish poison and frequently used by the characterized by hot summer and dry except during Gond tribe. The parts of other plant species are used the southwest monsoon season. The area receives occasionally. about 1,044 mm rainfall annually. The minimum and The results obtained from this study brought in maximum temperatures are 15 and 44ºC in the month light of piscicidal plants of KWS. Gond tribe living of December and May, respectively 27 . Humidity is inside the sanctuary is fond of fishing and often generally high especially in the monsoon and post spends the whole day for this purpose in festival monsoon months. occasion. For stupefying fish through usage of fish Methodology poisons, the selection of a suitable water body is very An ethnobotanical survey was conducted during important. For this, the tribal people prefer shallow 2005-2007 to collect information from the Gond tribe water bodies and slow flowing or stagnant water. inhabiting in Kawal wildlife sanctuary. During the Sometimes for catching fish from rivers, the flow of survey of the tribal villages, different methods used to water is checked either by erecting temporary wall of catch fishes were also recorded. Generally, they used mud and stones or by diverting the water current into various plant species extracts to stupefy the fish to small ponds. Different plant parts (see Table 1) were catch them easily. As many of the Gond people crushed and thrown in stagnant water. The bio-active depend on fishing activities, these piscicidal plants compounds present in the plants act on fishes and make their work easy in fishing. The data collected their activity slowly get paralyzed. Thus, the fish were further verified and cross-checked in different poison makes the fish float in a dazed state and villages with Gond people. Efforts have been made to come to the surface of water from where they can select the plants in flowering and fruiting condition be captured easily. However, the tribal observations MURTHY et al : PISCICIDAL PLANTS KAWAL WILDLIFE SANCTUARY 99

Table 1Plants used as fish poison by Gond tribe of Kawal wildlife sanctuary

Botanical name/ Voucher No. Family Local name Collected place Habit Parts used Ingredients Acorus calamus Linn./KUH 2010 Acoraceae Vasa nabhi Donga pally Herb Rhizome Asarone and beta-asarone Balanites aegyptiaca (Linn.) Balanitaceae Gara Alinagar Tree Fruit Saponin Delile/KUH 2022 Calotropis gigantea (Linn.) R.Br. ex Asclepiadaceae Gilledu Jannaram Shrub Root Calotropin Ait./KUH 2011 Careya arborea Roxb./KUH 2024 Lecythidaceae Budda dharmi Talamadugu Tree Stem bark Tannin Cassia fistula Linn./KUH 2023 Caesalpiniaceae Rela Juvviguda Tree Stem bark Anthraquinone Catunaregam spinosa Rubiaceae Manga Gandigopalraopur Shrub Stem bark Piperine (Thunb.)Tirveng./KUH 2026 Cleistanthus collinus (Roxb.) Benth. Euphorbiaceae Nalla kodisha Rampur Tree Stem bark Alkaloids & Hook.f./KUH 2033 Costus speciosus (Koenig.) Sm. Zingiberaceae Chengala gadda Donga pally Herb Rhizome Diosgenin KUH 2035 Gardenia latifolia Soland./ KUH 2030 Rubiaceae Bikki Alinagar Tree Stem bark Alkaloids Garuga pinnata Roxb./KUH 2015 Burseraceae Garugu Jannaram Tree Fruit Garuganin Gloriosa superba Linn./KUH 2018 Lilliaceae Nabhi Beersaipeta Herb Tuber Saponin Haldina cordifolia (Roxb.) Rubiaceae Bandari Juvviguda Tree Stem bark Triterpenoids Ridsd./KUH 2038 Helicteres isora Linn./KUH 2041 Sterculiaceae Nulthadu Huzoor nagar Shrub Bark Alkaloids Holarrhena pubescens (Buch.-Ham.) Apocynaceae Pala kodisha Rampur Shrub Stem bark Holarrhinene, Wall. ex G.Don/KUH 2045 Conessine Holoptelea integrifolia (Roxb.) Ulmaceae Nemali nara Koyagudem Tree Leaves Octacosanol Planch./KUH 2017 Madhuca indica J.F.Gmel./ KUH 2046 Sapotaceae Ippa Parupally Tree Seed Alkaloids Ougeinia oojeinensis Fabaceae Vandanamu Muthyampeta Tree Leaves Alkaloids (Roxb.)Hochr./KUH 2048 Plumbago zeylanica Linn./ KUH 2059 Plumbaginaceae Chitramoolamu Tallapeta Herb Root Plumbagin Pongamia pinnata (Linn.) Pierre Fabaceae Kanuga Jannaram Tree Seed Pongmol KUH 2051

Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Oken. Sapindaceae Pusuku Alinagar Tree Seed Alkaloids KUH 2055 Sterculia urens Roxb./KUH 2058 Sterculiaceae Tapsi Kalleda Tree Stem bark Glucuronic acid Strychnos nux-vomica Linn. Loganiaceae Visha mushti Lingapur Tree Seed Strychnine KUH 2061 Strychnos potatorum Linn./ KUH 2065 Loganiaceae Chilla Kawwal Tree Seed Strychnine Ventilago denticulata Willd. Rhamnacee Danti Kalleda Climber Stem bark Alkaloids KUH 2068 Wrightia tinctoria (Roxb.) R. Br. Apocynaceae Kodisha pala Talamadugu Shrub Stem bark Isoricinoleic KUH 2070 acid regarding fish poison are that the fish lose botanical to stupefy fish with little effort for cropping. consciousness and the effect of fish poison does not The present data was compared with other published adversely change the taste and quality of fish. They literature and found that some of the plant usages are also in perception that by taking the fish as food, it listed are not recorded earlier. The fruit of Balanites won’t affect their health condition. The extracts from aegyptiaca is used in the present study while stem these plants are used mostly in dry season when water bark of the same plant is mentioned in the study level is low. This allows use of small quantity of carried out in Chhattisgarh state24 . The use of stem 100 INDIAN J NAT PROD RESOUR, MARCH 2010

Plate 1 Some plants collected during field survey in Kawal wildlife sanctuary bark of Wrightia tinctoria in this paper deviated from integrifolia is used in but leaves of the the use of root bark of the same plant for stupefying same species are used by the Gond people in present the fish in other region 22 . Stem bark of Holoptelia study 25 . MURTHY et al : PISCICIDAL PLANTS KAWAL WILDLIFE SANCTUARY 101

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