Abstract:

Animal bites are a significant concern of public health and mortality throughout the world, wherein India reports the highest number of deaths due to snakebites. The tribes of India (Scheduled Tribes or STs), constituting about 8.6% of India’s population with a total of more than 104 million, mostly inhabit remote and inaccessible areas, with their subsistence and habitation being primarily forest-derived. This forest-based lifestyle exposes tribal populations to animal bites which are often lethal, and at the same time, it is the forest only on which tribes are dependent for getting their primary health care through the institution of traditional healer or ethnomedical practitioner who uses natural resources to cure various health issues. This system of knowledge and immense know-how of illness, diagnosis, treatment and utilization of natural resources (especially plants) in treatment of a myriad of ailments is transferred orally from one generation to another.