ETHNOBOTANICAL SURVEY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN PHULBARI UPAZILA OF DINAJPUR DISTRICT , BANGLADESH

Ethnobotanical survey in Phulbari Upazila of Dinajpur district has revealed a total of 86 species used as medicinal plants by the Santal community. Santal names, part/s used as medicine and diseases to be treated with each plant have been presented. A number of threats to medicinal plants and their habitats have been identified and some measures have also been recommended for the conservation of medicinal plants and their habitats in the area.


Introduction
Phulbari Upazila belongs to Dinajpur district.It lies between 250º23´ and 25º34´ N latitude and 88º48´ and 88º59´ E longitude.The Upazila is bounded by Parbotipur and Shiribandar to the north, by Nawabganj to the east, by Birampur to the south and east and by India to the west.Total area of the Upazila is about 299.55 sq.km.The general topography of the Upazila may be described as flat, gently sloping southward and slightly elevated alluvial terrace known as Barind.Elevation ranges from 25 to 35 meters above mean sea level (Siddiqi 1972).
Once maximum area of the Upazila was occupied by an extensive Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.)forest interspersed with cultivated rice fields.Due to human settlement, agricultural encroachment and mining activities, the Sal forest of the area has been drastically reduced to small patches.In the small patches of the forest, S. robusta is the dominant species.Some other species associated with the Sal are Careya arborea (Kumbhi), Anacardium occidentale (Bela), Cassia fistula (Sonalu), Albizia procera (Koroi).Syzygium fruticosum (Butijam), Syzygium operculatum (Panijam), Syzygium cumini (Kalojam), Flacourtia indica (Paniala), Randia dumetorum (Monkanta), and Litsae glutinosa (Menda).Forest floor has been covered with seasonal vegetation including grasses, sedges, aroids, zingers, climbers, herbs etc. Phulbaria Upazila is the abode for 1.3 million human population (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 2003).Among this, 3.11% population belongs to Santal community They are living in the forest sites far from the Upazila headquarters.A major share of their food, medicine, house buildings materials and firewood come from the natural forest.These people have their own language and cultural tradition.They always like to keep away from the hub of modern civilization.Currently, their cultural tradition is threatened by modern cultures all around them.They already started to convert to Christianity from Hinduism.They are losing their traditional knowledge day by day.Apart from this, mining activities and forest clearance around their home sites are other major threats to their traditional culture.Considering all these factors ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in Phulbari Upazila will require much time to complete.Otherwise we may lose important traditional Santal knowledge about plants before documentation.
Ethnobotanical work here in Bangladesh is in its initial stage.Some work, e.g.Hassan and Khan (1986), Mia and Huq (1988), Hassan and Khan (1996), Chowdhury et al. (1996), Alam et al. (1996), Uddin et al. (2001).Khan et al. (2002) and Uddin et al. (2004) are only a few to mention.The work on the ethnobotany of Santal community is lacking.That is why in the present survey an attempt has been made with the following objectives: 1) To identify the medicinal plants, their Santal names, parts used and diseases to be treated 2) To identify the threats to medicinal plants and their habitats 3) To make recommendation for conservation measures.

Materials and Methods
Phulbari Upazila of Dinajpur District was selected for the study and Santal community was considered as target community.All Santal villages in the Upazila were visited during the year of 2004 and 2005.Data of medicinal use of plants were collected through interview with local herbal practitioners (Kabiraj/ Boidya), headmen and elderly persons in the community using semi-structured questionnaire at different locations.Data collected from one person were verified with others by asking the same questions.Most of the medicinal plants were identified in the field and in case of unknown, plant specimens were collected.These specimens were brought to Dhaka University Herbarium and processed by traditional herbarium techniques.These were examined and identified by comparing herbarium specimens and also consulting literature.Threats to medicinal plants and their habitats were also noted from the field observations.

Results and discussion
A total of 86 medicinal plant species were recorded from the present survey work in Phulbari Upazila.These species are used by Santal community in different ailments.Botanical names, Santal names, parts used and diseases to be treated are presented in the Table 1.
Currently, coal mining, stone lifting and related developmental activities in Phulbari Upazila are great threats to medicinal plants and their habitats.Moreover, Santal community already started to convert themselves to Christianity.Missionary activities gave them opportunity to go for modern medicine.It was found that many medicine men are reluctant to go back to Santal community and their traditional health care system.Forest clearance for exotic monoculture plantations in Phulbari Upazila is other threat to indigenous medicinal plants .Sal forest with associated species were replaced by Acacia spp.and Eucalyptus spp.plantations in different natural forest patches of the Upazila.Remaining Sal patches are in great risk because of fragmentation, edge effect, agricultural encroachment and developmental activities.
From the present observation in the Phulbari Upazila, we have come up with some recommendation measures for the conservation of medicinal plants and their habitat.Traditional Santal knowledge about the usage of medicinal plants should be properly recorded and documented.Apart from several threats some Sal patches of the Upazila still merit for in situ conservation.Otherwise ex-situ conservation sites including medicinal plant garden, protected area and eco-park should be established.Awareness about the importance of medicinal plants should be created among the local people, developers, energy companies and policy makers.Environmental impact assessment should be done before going to undertake any mining and developmental projects.Compensation measures should be ensured from companies for damaging the medicinal plants and their habitats.