WILD EDIBLE PLANT RESOURCES OF TEA GARDENS IN TERAI AND HILLS OF DARJEELING DISTRICT IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA

1. Department of Tea Science, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling 734013, West Bengal, India. 2. Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Doimukh 791112, Arunachal Pradesh, India (Formerly of University of North Bengal). ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 10 April 2020 Final Accepted: 12 May 2020 Published: June 2020

A survey among the tea garden workers in Darjeeling Terai and Darjeeling Hills was conducted. Workers are mostly Santhals and Oraons (in Terai) and Nepalese (in Hills). The survey recorded 150 species of edible plants representing 63 families. This includes 18 species of monocots (covering 11 families) and 128 species of dicotyledons (covering 48 families) and 04 species of Pteridophytes from 04 families. Out of the recorded plants, 71 species are from Terai, 47 species from Hills and 32 species are common for Tea gardens of both the regions. Their traditional knowledge can be used for future food security of human races. At the same time proper awareness need to be generated among them as these plants might be contaminated with different types of chemicals used in such plantations. Scientific name, local name, habit, edible part and mode of use etc. of these plants have been presented and discussed.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
Darjeeling is recognised worldwide for its unique naturally flavoured Tea and for the exquisite view of Mt. Kanchanjangha. Darjeeling is the northernmost district of the state of West Bengal, India, mostly spreading over the outer fringes of the Singalila Range of Eastern Himalaya and is covered by the IUCN recognized 'Himalaya Hotspot for Biodiversity Conservation'. Also, it is well known for its exceptionally rich biodiversity (Das 2004;Mittermeier et al. 2005; Das & Lungphi 2019). This entire region is located within 26 31 05" and 27 13 10" N latitude and between 87 59 30" and 88 53 E longitude and is covering an altitudinal range from c. 132 m (at Matigara/ Siliguri) to 3660 m Hills (at Sandakphu). It is bounded by Nepal and Purnea district of Bihar in the west, Sikkim and Bhutan in the north, Bhutan and Jalpaiguri district on East and the Uttar Dinajpur district on the South (Das 1995(Das , 2004. Topologically Darjeeling district is recognized into two broad divisions, Hills and Terai-plains. The landscape is characterized by many Hills of different elevations, narrow and steep V-shaped valleys with rivers and their innumerable tributaries (Das 1995(Das , 2004Basak et al 2010). The southwardly rolling plains at the feet of Darjeeling Himalaya, administratively that comes under the Siliguri subdivision, is referred as Terai. The vegetation of the entire Eastern Himalayan region is highly diverse and rich and has invited plant lovers from round the world at least during the last three centuries (Hara 1966(Hara , 1971 The entire region, both Terai-plains and Darjeeling-Hills were earlier covered with almost continuous dense forests (Allen et al. 1906;Gurung 1911; Anonymous 2011) but during the last (20 th ) century, mainly with the fast extension of human settlements and construction of broad communication systems, the vegetation over the entire area has been degraded and depleted very fast (Sarkar 2008). This entire region is the home to numerous endemic, RET and botanically interesting species of plants. (Das 1996 Before the establishment of Tea Gardens, the entire area was densely forest covered (Bhujel 1996  Present work was conducted in seven Tea Gardens/ Estates located in Terai and Hills within Darjeeling district and are located in very remote areas. The living standard of these tea garden workers are below the poverty level (Ghosh 2006). So, these poor people are forced to depend on many local wild plant resources for their sustenance and use a good number weedy wild plants in their daily diet. Among these, some plants are collected from tea gardens and some from the nearby natural vegetation (Ghosh & Das 2011).   Figure 1:-Study Area.

Survey and Further Evaluation:
For the ethnobotanical survey the method was followed as adopted by Jain (1981Jain ( , 1987Jain ( , 1991 and Rai (2002). The mandatory PIC was taken from the local community-heads before start of the survey. A semi-structured questionnaire (Jain 1987;Tag 2007) was used for this purpose. All the voucher specimens were processed into mounted herbarium-sheets following Jain & Rao (1977). The plants were basically identified in the laboratory using different available floras (Grierson & Long 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 2001Noltie 1994Noltie , 2000Hara 1966Hara , 1971Hara et al 1978Hara et al , 1979Hara et al , 1982Anonymous 1997Anonymous , 2015Anonymous , 2016 and were deposited in the Herbarium of the Department of Tea Science, University of North Bengal. For updated nomenclature and family delimitation www.plantsoftheworldonline.org and www.theplantlist.org were largely consulted.

Result and Discussion:-
Through the present ethnobotanical surveys as much as 150 species, representing 63 families, of edible plants used by the Tea Garden workers from Seven Tea Estates in Darjeeling District has been recognized and presented alphabetically in Table- Morphological diversity among the edible parts of the recorded plants is also quite interesting. Almost all normal morphological organs are edible, starting from root, passing through stem, leaf, inflorescence, flower, fruits, seed and a number of modified organs. In this study it was observed that fruits of 28 % species, leaves of 25 % specie and shoots of 21 % species has been selected or recognised by them as edible (Figure-3). It is quite interesting to note that they use even poisonous plants (Ghosh & Das 2011) for their some special types of preparations. For example, fruits and seeds of Trichosanthes lepiniana, quite a good number of nettle species like Urtica ardens, Urtica dioica and Girardinia diversifolia are managed by them to eat. Some of these plants are even marketed regularly.
The food value of most of these plants is unknown though the local people prepare quite tasty food using these species. Considering the taste, food value and preference some of these wild edible plants can be taken for proper cultivation and marketing (Ghosh 2015).

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They make some special preparation also. Common fermented foods like Sinki and Gundruk using locally available plants and used those during the periods of scarcity. Jhara (Oraons) or Harhia (Santhals), the rice beer, is extremely popular among the tribal people specially among the Oraon & Santhals communities. They use many weedy plants for its preparation (Ghosh & Das 2004). It is consumed during all of their festivals and ceremonies, marriages and on holidays regularly. --There are at least thirteen species of plants used for its preparation. These are Oryza sativa, Coccinia grandis, Cyanthillium cinereum, Clerodendrum infortunatum, Plumbago zeylanica, Stephania japonica, Stephania rotunda, Oroxylum indicum, Mussaenda roxburghii, Scoparia dulcis, Rauvolfia serpentina, Artocarpus heterophyllus, and Wattakaka volubilis.
These tough but poor-people generally live in remote villages or in poorly developed colonies in or around Tea Gardens but maintain a large number of traditional cultural practices. After whole day's struggle for the collection of livelihood they need some entertainment. So, they drink rice beer in good amount and start enjoying (Ghosh & Das 2004). While rice-beer is popular in Terai-Duars region, in Hills millet-beer is used abundantly. It is made from the grains of Eleusine coracana and locally called Jnard or Tongba or Chhyang (Tamang et al. 1988). However, fingermillets can be cooked and taken as alternatives to wheat or rice. The plant is widely cultivated in subtropical and warm-temperate hills of Darjeeling.

Conclusion:-
The culture of Santhal and Oraon tribes are different from each other. On the other hand, Nepalese workers produce the main work-force in Hill gardens. The present survey among the Tea Garden workers in Terai and Hills of Darjeeling District has resulted in the record of large number of edible plants and their different types of uses. A scan through the list exposed the diversity within these plants and includes Dicotyledonous, Monocotyledonous and Pteridophytic plants.
Poor Tea Garden workers collect many of these plants from the gardens itself. That means, apart fro m their daily wages, they also get many edible plants from these gardens. But, how far these plants are safe to consume -that's a big question! How much of the pesticides and other chemicals regularly dumped in these tea gardens regularly are retained in these weeds is unknown.
Plants collected outside the garden area, mostly the natural vegetation must be safer and dependable. However, many of these listed plants are regularly marketed or even cultivated. So, non-cultivated but marketable plants could fetch some fund regularly, round the year for their better sustenance!!! At the same time, some awareness program related to the food safety need to conduct among these people regularly.