Importance of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in rural livelihood: A study in Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, northeast India

Abstract

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are the forest products derived from both plants and animals whose tangible values are often made to evade reaching a nation's exchequer. Throughout the human history, these products are used by a variety of purposes like food, fodder, fiber traditional medicine, agricultural amenities, domestic materials, construction materials, and the likes. Many traditional beliefs and cultures are also associated with these products. The present study was carried out in Patharia Hills Reserve Forest (PHRF) of northeast India to understand the importance of NTFPs in the daily life of rural people living in the area adjacent to the reserve forest, the economic importance of NTFPs used by them and evaluate the lacunae of government strategies for their preservation. Markets were surveyed to identify the economically important NTFPs and ascertain their values in terms of local currency. 200 respondents were interviewed through a close-ended questionnaire prepared for this to detail the harvesting process and marketing of NTFPs. 14 economic important NTFPs were found in use by the fringe village people. These were variously used for farm products (40%), food (34%) etc. Among plants, herbs were dominantly used (64.28%) followed by shrub (14.28%) and trees (21.43%). Among the various plant parts, mostly the stem was used (50%), followed by leaves (15%) and fruits (14%). About one-fourth of the villagers were found to be dependent on NTFPs for sustaining livelihood to various degrees, out of which 18% were partially dependent, while another 6% were solely dependent on the forest produce. The study revealed that unsustainable harvesting of NTFPs from PHRF is the root cause of species decline and thus recommend that illegal and unsustainable way of harvesting NTFPs should be stopped, and sustainable harvesting economic importance NTFPs under government supervision is recommended to alleviate the poverty of the rural mass.