Abstract

A. Rajasekaran, Joginder Singh, Vijender Pal Panwar* and Brij Bhushan 

ABSTRACT

Article History Received: April 2018 Accepted: May 2018 The population status of wild edible plants species studied in the moist temperate forest areas of the district Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India by quadrat method is presented in this paper. The study revealed that the local inhabitants utilize 53 plants out of 96 plants recorded from the moist temperate forest areas for various edible purposes. Among the 53 edible plants recorded, seven were trees, 21 shrubs and the remaining 25 were herbs. A total of 96 plant species (53 edible and 43 non edible) which included 11 trees, 30 shrubs and 55 herb species were recorded from the habitat. The population study showed that the tree species used for various edible purposes had low density (21.56 trees/ha) and basal area (0.93 m2/ha) as compared to non-edible tree species, which had density of 303.92 trees/ ha and basal area of 22.16 m2 /ha. The higher density of non-edible tree species in this forests is mainly due to the dominance of Cedrus deodara, which had density of 228.43 trees/ha, basal area of 18.66 m2/ha and IVI of 207.63. Similarly wild edible shrub total density (0.94 bushes/9m2) was also less as compared to non-edible shrubs (1.69 bushes/9m2). Density of wild edible shrubs ranged between 0.01 to 0.17 bushes/9m2. Herb species used for edible purposes by the local inhabitants also had low density (13.10 individuals/m2) when compared to herbs which are non-edible (17.48 individuals/m2). Though many species are mentioned wild edible, but most of the species are rarely used by local people nowadays. It was also observed that knowledge about the edibility of plant species is decreasing drastically among young generation. There is dire need to start awareness as well as conservation programmes for the wild edible plant species.