Ethnobotany of India, Volume 2

Western Ghats and West Coast of Peninsular India

T. Pullaiah, K. V. Krishnamurthy, Bir Bahadur

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315341927
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

This is the second of a five-volume set. This series of volumes on the ethnobotany of different regions of India melds important knowledge in one place. India is one of the most important regions of the old world and has culturally rich and diverse knowledge systems. The expert authors have been selected to summarize information on the various aspects of ethnobotany of India, such as ethnoecology, traditional agriculture, cognitive ethnobotany, material sources, traditional pharmacognosy, ethnoconservation strategies, bioprospection of ethnodirected knowledge, and protection of ethnobotanical knowledge.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

K. V. KRISHNAMURTHY,¹ BIR BAHADUR,² and T. PULLAIAH³

¹Consultant, R&D, Sami Labs, Peenya Industrial Area, Bangalore–560058, Karnataka, India

²Department of Botany, Kakatiya University, Warangal–506009, Telangana State, India

³Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur–515003, India

CONTENTS

Abstract

1.1The West Coast and the Western Ghats

1.2Ethnic Diversity and Knowledge Systems and Factors That Impacted Them

1.3Utilitarian Aspects of Ethnic Communities of Western Peninsular India

Keywords

References

ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with an introduction to the subsequent chapters covered in this volume. It describes the physical and biological features of the West Coast and Western Ghats of Peninsular India. It also deals with an introduction to the study areas and their ethnic diversity and plants of importance in medicine, food and other requirements of tribal people. An introduction to conservation measures involving sacred groves is also given. The ethnobotany of mangroves and bryophytes of these regions is also included.

1.1THE WEST COAST AND THE WESTERN GHATS

The Indian subcontinent consists of the Himalayan mountains as the northern border, the almost flat expanse of the Indo-Gangetic plains in the middle and the triangular peninsular India with uplands and plateaus in the south bordered on both sides by narrow coastal plains along the seaboards (Bay of Bengal on the east, Arabian Sea on the west and the Indian Ocean on the South) (Valdiya, 2010). Each of these regions has not only distinct structural and lithographic features and physiography but also different geologic evolutionary histories. Peninsular India is 2,200 km long in the N-S direction and 1,400 km broad (in the broadest region) in the E-N direction, with its apex terminating at Kanyakumari at the extreme south. The western upland of peninsular India forms the Sahyadri Range (08° 19′ 18″–21° 16′ 24″ N and 72° 56′ 24″–78° 19′ 40′E). This range extends 1,600 km southwards from the Tapti river valley in southern Gujarat to Kanyakumari in southernmost Tamil Nadu. This range is conveniently divided into three zones (Valdiya, 2010): (i) Northern Sahyadri in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which is made of Late Cretaceous basaltic lavas; (ii) Central Sahyadri in Goa and Karnataka, which is made of Archaean gneisses and high-grade metamorphic rocks; and (iii) Southern Sahyadri in Kerala and Tamil Nadu which is made of Late proterozoic Charnockites and Khondalites. According to Valdiya (2010) “the NNW-SSE-trending fractures and faults, defining the ranges forming linear blocks make the Sahyadri a horst mountain of sorts. Its west-facing steep to a near vertical flank is characterized by a multiplicity of precipitous encarpments disposed en echelon and alternating with very narrow irregular terraces. These features have given rise to a ‘landing stair’ known as the Western Ghats.” Thus, the mountain range is the Sahyadri and the escarpment is the Western Ghats (W. Ghats). The Sahyadri hill range meets the Eastern hill ranges (E. Ghats) at Nilgiris area. The Sahyadri hill range is located about 15–100 km inland from the west coast, depending on its location. The total estimated area of W. Ghats is 1,64,280 km², which is about 5% of the total area of India (Nayar et al., 2014).

On the northern Sahyadri and on a larger part of the central Sahyadri the eastern flank slopes gently eastwards; it drains the Godavari, Krishna, Tungabhadra, and Kaveri rivers, all of which flow eastward over long distances to discharge their water into the Bay of Bengal. There are also west-flowing shorter rivers, such as Ulhas, Vaitarni, Kalinadi, Gangavali, Sharavati, Netravati, Mandovi, Payaswini, and Valapattan that arise in the hill range; these rivers often flow deep vertically down (sometimes as waterfalls, such as Jog falls). From the southern Sahyadri arise the rivers like Noyyal and Vaigai that flow eastward, and Ponnani, Periyar, Pamba, Achankovil and Kakkad that flow westward.

The average elevation of the Sahyadri is 1,000 to 1,200 m. The high peaks are Salher (1,567 m), Harishchandragarh (1,424 m), Mahabaleshwar (1,438 m), Kalsubai (1,714 m), Thadiannamalai (1,745 m), Doddabetta (2,637 m), Kolaribetta (2629 m), Mukurti (2554 m), Anaimudi (2695 m), Vavulmala (2339 m), Kodaikanal (2133 m), Chembra Peak (2100 m), Elivaimala (2088 m), Banasura (2073 m), Kottamala (2019 m), Meesapulimala (2640 m), Elaimalai (2,670 m), Vandaravu peak (2553 m), Kattumala (2552 m), and Anginda (2383 m). In general. southern Sahyadri has taller peaks than the central or northern Sahyadri. Between the Nilgiris and Anaimalais is the Palghat gap (25–30 km wide) (Valdiya, 2010). There is also a minor Sengotta gap at the extreme south. The rainfall in the hill range ranges from less than 1,000 mm to over 7,450 mm, greater rainfall being seen in southern Sahyadri. The rain-shadow regions (on eastern slopes) get only 500 mm rainfall on an average. The average temperature ranges between 15–24°C.

The West Coast (W. Coast) is characterized by an array of near-shore terrestrial cliff faces, dunes, sandy shores and urban, village, agricultural and industrial landscapes. There are also near-shore islands (for example the Anjdiv Island off Goa). In some places there are estuaries, coves, deltas, lagoons, embayments, backwaters, mangrove vegetation, salt marshes, mud flats and salt panes. The Konkan Coast is 8–24 km wide and is a rocky shore of cliffs, bays, coves and small beaches. The Kanara Coast (in Karnataka) is 30–50 km wide, becoming 70 km wide near Mangalore. The Malabar Coast (in Kerala) is 20–100 km wide. A 80 km long and 5–10 km wide lagoon is barred by a 55 km long sand spit and this gives rise to the Vembanad Lake. There are a few more barred lagoons in the Malabar Coast. The mangrove systems of W. Coast are strikingly very small and patchy here and there when compared to those of the E. Coast. The area covered by brackish water in W. Coast is around 3,30,000 ha, while that of Kerala alone is around 500 km².; the Vembanad brackish water area alone has an area of 200 km². The W. Coast of peninsular India is affected by very prominent NNW-SSE faults, cut and locally displaced by ESE-WNW to E-W oriented shear zones. One of the consequences of continuing fault reactivation is the evolution of the spectacular escarpment referred to as W. Ghats that sharply defines the western flank of the Sahyadri range (Valdiya, 2010).

Phytogeographically, the W. Ghats can be divided into four regions (Abraham, 1985): (i) Region between Tapti River and Goa; (ii) Region between Kalinadi and Coorg; (iii) The Nilgiris; and (iv) The Anamalai, Cardomomum and Palani hills. To these can be added the southernmost W. Ghats, the Agasthiamalai, which forms a unique phytogeographic zone. The W. Coast region can be added as the sixth phytogeographic region. The main vegetation types of W. Ghats are scrub savanna, semi-deciduous forests, dry-deciduous forests, moist deciduous forests, wet evergreen forests, montane forests, grasslands, shola forests, wetland vegetation, marshes (particularly Myristica marshes), etc. In addition to these, there are mangrove forests. The W. Ghats form one of the 34 hotspots of the world with a high degree of endemic taxa of plants, animals, fungi, lichens and microbes. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity in the world (Myers et al., 2000). More than 60 genera and 1,500 species of plants are reported to be endemic to W. Ghats, although according to Nayar et al. (2014) there are only 1,270 endemic flowering plant species in this region. Around 27–35% of India’s plants are reported to exist in W. Ghats and the adjacent coastal region. According to Nayar et al. (2014) there are around 8080 specific and subspecific flowering taxa, of which 7,402 species, 593 subspecies and varieties are confirmed, while the status of 85 taxa need to be verified beyond doubt. The W. Ghats is also home to 145 wild plant species related to cultivated taxa: it also contains more than 30% of the country’s mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species (Bawa et al., 2007). Many animals are endemic to W. Ghats (Gunawardene et al., 2007). W. Ghats is recognized as a World Heritage Site with 39 of its regions included as very sensitive areas.

1.2ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND FACTORS THAT IMPACTED THEM

The generally accepted model of human evolution emphasizes that the modern human species originated about 200,000 years ago in East Africa and then started to migrate to different regions of the world around 70,000 -50,000 years ago. The origin and settlement of Indian people are still matters that are debated. Although the initial migrations to India might be accidental or by chance, the subsequent migrations were essentially due to attraction to India’s biological wealth. Humans appear to have spread to many parts of India by the middle of Palaeolithic period (around 50,000 to 20,000 years ago) (Misra, 2001). It is generally agreed that the earliest widespread occupants of major part of N. India were from the Dravidian base, but with the arrival of Indo-European language speakers they were pushed in more and more numbers to peninsular India; initially peninsular India had a much scarcer populations of Dravidians (Basu et al., 2003; Kanthimathi et al., 2008). Most, if not all, migrations after the 16^th century were due to pulls from their destinations and pushes in their homeland (Gadgil et al., 1998).

There are 461 tribal communities in India (Singh, 1992) who speak about 750 dialects, which can be classified into four language groups: Austro-Asian, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European. The W. Ghats/W. Coast region of India first came under human influence during the Palaeolithic Age around 20,000 years ago (Gadgil and Thapar, 1990), although some consider that it happened around 15,000 years ago (Subash Chandran, 1997). The latter date is supported by the discovery of stone tools from some of the river valleys of W. Ghats, while artifacts of this Age were discovered in certain other areas of W. Ghats. These evidences indicate the hunter-gatherer mode of subsistence of these early occupants. However, in the Mesolithic Age (between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago) most of these hunter-gatherer communities got transformed into food cultivators, particularly as podu cultivators in the hill valleys. In Chapter 2 of this volume Krishnamurthy et al. give a detailed account on the most important ethnic communities of W. Ghats and W. Coast of peninsular India. They are mostly responsible for the development of ethnic knowledge on plants of this region as well as for the domestication of some useful plants that had originated in this region, such as pepper, Garcinia species, etc. They were also responsible for cultivating some of the exotic plants that were introduced into this region long back in history. These include taxa like cloves, Myristica, cardamomum, Areca catechu, etc.

The west coast of peninsular India is one region in the whole world in general and particularly in the Indian Ocean- Arabian Sea region that had the greatest of impacts in its ethnic diversity and ethnobotany. Right from third millennium BCE this region was a trade zone and people from Mediterranean, Rome, Greek, Arab, East African and S.E. Asian regions were visiting the west coast for trade on several items from and to India. Trade had a great impact on the ethnic societies all along the west coast; the traditional life style, profession, culture and social life of the some of the tribes were changed totally. They were made to involve themselves in trade either directly or indirectly. Trade also forced some ethnic societies to resort to cultivation of certain plant species, which they were previously collecting from the wild. Sustained use of plant resources gave rise to a system where excess collected/cultivated were made available for trade. There was a change in religion, particularly Christianization or Islamization of originally ‘Hindu’ tribal members, either by force or volition that resulted in a great genetic mix-up. Because of the impact of Arabs, E. Africans, Dutch, Portuguese and English people, there was also creolization and production of pidgins (mixture of languages), which again changed the prevailing socio-cultural environment. Added to trade and religious effects, polity also had its effects on the ethnic diversity and ethnobotany of this region. Details on all the above impacts are detailed in the third chapter of this book by Krishnamurthy.

The west coast of peninsular India underwent a lot of changes after the 15^th century due to the arrival of colonial powers of Europe, such as the Dutch, Portuguese and English for exploitation of the resources and to trade them. The Portuguese and Dutch were greatly interested in the traditional medicinal knowledge and the raw drugs, and medicinal formulations of the local ethnic communities so that they can be used by the Europeans at home. The Dutch exploited the Ezhava community’s medical knowledge and this resulted in the Dutch Governor at Cochin to compile the 12-volume book Hortus Malabaricus. The Portuguese doctor Garcia da Orta who got settled down at Goa exploited the traditional medical knowledge available to him in the west coast and Deccan and came out with a classical medical book. These two major works along with two or three other works brought to light the superiority of Indian traditional medical wisdom, which was not based on Hippocratic approach. Krishnamurthy and Pullaiah have dealt with the European contribution to Western Indian Enthobotany in the period between 16^th and 18^th centuries CE in the fourth chapter of this book.

The world has known a great variety of cultures each with its own knowledge, belief and value systems. Religion, formal or informal, primitive or modern has always played a very important role in determining these knowledge and value systems. However, there are certain basic parallels and common aspects in the different traditional knowledge and belief systems that are in vogue even today in many parts of the world. One such common feature is conceiving life of people in terms of three ...