HEALING HERBS OF WORLD HERITAGE SITE: THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS

Abstract

Valley of Flowers national park is an Indian national park, located at a height of 3200m to 6675m in west Himalaya and it is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and the variety of medicinal plants. Due to its unique geographical location and different climatic condition it has unique habitat specificity and availability of variety of plant species. Where small communities fight various diseases through the traditional methods. These do not either occur elsewhere or have not so far been exploited. Tribal communities living in biodiversity rich areas possess a wealth of knowledge on the local utilization and conservation of food and medicinal plants. Local people of this region are basically depends upon medicinal plants for their primary health care system. The present study deals with the ethno medicinal information of 35 plant species used by the tribal people near to valley of flower; district Chamoli for their health care. Attempts have been made to explore traditional knowledge of some medicinal plants in area adjacent to Valley of Flowers. This study can serve as baseline information on medicinal plants and could be helpful to further strengthen the conservation of these important resources.