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Methodology
The current study reviews published literatures to understand the relevance of sacred groves and the goods and services.
Study Area
India has six broad geographical regions namely North-East India, Northern India, Eastern India, Western India, Central India and South India. Among these, the study covers:
North-East India:
Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya.
Eastern India:
West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa.
Northern India:
Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir.
Western India:
Rajasthan, Gujarat
Central India:
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh.
The study documented 489 sacred groves distributed across the study region (Figure 1a and b).
Fig.1: (a) Spatial Distribution of Sacred Groves
Fig.1: (b) Five Zones of Study Area
Data Collection
Data on ethno-medicinal plants in the sacred groves has been compiled from published papers. Effort has been made to analyse the collected data family wise medicinal plants, spatial distribution with the potential uses.
Data Analysis
Ethno-medicinal data were analysed to identify proportions of plant families with the known medicinal values, habit, plant parts, frequency and popularly used plants.
Statistical Analysis
Fidelity level (FL)
Fidelity level (FL) was computed (Friedmanetal, 1986) as per equation 1, to determine the most preferred ethnomedicinal plant species used in the treatment of a particular ailment [1].
FL (%) =(Ip/Iu) *100 (1)
Where, Ip is the number of informants who independently indicated the use of a species for the same major ailment and If the total number of informants who mentioned the plant for any major ailment (Friedman et al. 1986).
Informant’s Consensus Factor (ICF)
Informant consensus factor (ICF) given in equation 2 [1], Heinrich et al. 1998, Trotter and Logan, 1986] provides insights to the use value of particular species among the large proportion of people based on the level of homogeneity among information provided by different informants
ICF = (Nur – Nt)/(Nur – 1) (2)
Where, Nur = number of use reports from informants for a particular plant-use category; Nt = number of taxa or species that are used for that plant use category for all informants. ICF Values range between 0 and 1, where ‘1’ indicates the highest level of informant consent.
Determination of Threat
International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) categories threat status of rare, endangered plant species. The objective creating awareness about the importance of threatened species and conservation priorities at the local level.
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