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VOL. 11, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Sacred flora and indigenous belief systems of tribal communities in Mayurbhanj, Odisha
Authors
Jagan Tudu
Abstract
Mayurbhanj district in north Odisha has been identified in the world as
a land of very high rate of biological diversity and cultural significance
because of the long term interactions of the tribal people of the area with the
local forest cover. Examples To illustrate, tribal groups (such as the Santal,
Ho, Munda, Bathudi and many others) have traditionally had high cultural
association with plants, whether in terms of their sacral beliefs, rituals and
imparting ethnomedicinal knowledge through the generations. This paper has
reported 83 species of sacred plants that have been preserved and utilized by
the tribal people of Mayurbhanj with their cultural significance and
application in religious rituals and in medicine. The ethnobotanical
information was gathered by the means of structured field survey studies and
field tours to the chosen tribal villages and sacred groves and complemented
with a comprehensive review of the available literature on the subject matter
of the traditional knowledge of the tribes. The findings indicated that sacred
plants are important in the conservation of biodiversity, health practices and
preservation of cultural identity of the tribal people. In addition, it is
revealed that sacred groves and belief based conservation methods provide
sustainable community based policies of conservation of ecologically and
culturally significant plant species in the field. The paper has therefore
shown that there is need to conserve and document native bodies of knowledge
and traditional conservation plans so that both the biological and cultural
resources within the area are under sustainable management.
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Pages:329-334
How to cite this article:
Jagan Tudu "Sacred flora and indigenous belief systems of tribal communities in Mayurbhanj, Odisha". International Journal of Botany Studies, Vol 11, Issue 1, 2026, Pages 329-334
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