Natural Resources of Himalaya
Contents: Introduction. 1. Himalayan forests. 2. The geology of the Himalaya. 3. Ethnobotany of eastern Himalaya. 4. Medicinal plants. 5. The lepcha medicobotany of Dzangu in the Sikkim Himalaya. 6. Ethnobotany of the Darjeeling Himalaya. 7. Bon medicine among Monpas in Western Arunachal Pradesh. 8. Healing practices amongst the Gaddi tribe of Himachal Pradesh. 9. Conservation and regeneration of endangered gymnospermic medicinal plants in Kumaun Himalaya. 10. Medicinal plants in the northwestern Himalaya: a public involvement approach analysis. 11. Rural poultry farming: a model for rapid generation of rural income and employment--in the north east regions of India. 12. Improvement of rural hill economy through the eastern Himalayan flora. 13. The eastern Himalaya: environmentalism and economic development. 14. The march of commercial forestry. 15. Industry and minerals. 16. Traditional methods of water management in the Central Himalayan agriculture. 17. Man and forests in the Darjeeling Himalaya: reviewing settlement-fuelwood equations. Index.
"Natural resources of Himalaya are immense in richness and variety. First and the foremost, the forest cover at distinct altitudes serves the ecological and environmental balance in the region. The mountain ranges have the deciduous alpine scrubs, birch for forests on the snow-capped peaks to the tropical evergreen forests and Sal tree forests in Tarai and Bbabar. The nature of forests changes with the altitudes. The traditional ethnobotany is the source of medicine, foodstuff in form of wild fruits, barks, leaves and flowers to the rural and tribal folks, besides fodder for animals. The book deals with a wide variety of Himalayan vegetations.
The book also deals with the ethnobotany of Sikkim, Darjeeling, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal and Uttarakhand in a great detail. Besides the water, mineral, industrial and commercial forestry resources of the mountainous regions have been discussed. The book contains wealth of information on the subject." (jacket)
