SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS, FOREST-LANDS AND TRIBAL KNOWLEDGEOF ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA.

A. K. Awasthi,
Department of Botany,
B. N. D. College, Kanpur, India

and
Kavita Arora
Department of Botany
Jagran College
KANPUR

Aspects of ethno-botany in developing regions of South and East Asia especially, the
problems of socio-economic development of tribals vis-à-vis local resource and knowledge
seems a meaningful discourse of local, regional and global dimension. A test case of Andaman
and Nicobar Islands, India situates itself in an area of rich plant diversity, vast array of local
races and their wild relatives of medicinal and crop plants. This region is also a home of varied
ethnic groups striving to carve their place in the developing societies. Despite this interesting
socio-economic construct studies on the region have remained casual and patchy, providing no
answers to tribal developments on the strength of local resource knowledge that remains still
un-tapped. The present paper deals with socio-economic primacy and significance of local-
indigenous tribal knowledge with regional and global implications vis-à-vis ethno botanical
significance of forests of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.