Traditional foods have the potential to help Kashmir communities adapt to climate change: study

In the western Himalayas of Kashmir, mountain communities are eating their way to preserving traditional knowledge. Local food advocates are trying to get more of the rich array of wild edible plant species, traditionally cultivated by communities from forests, like gucchi (Morchella esculenta), onto peoples’ plates.

A new study published in Forest Policy and Economics says the continued cultivation of these species opens the door to enhancing food security, building resiliency to climate change — and helps people not forget about them. In the last few decades, development projects and climate change hit hard the availability of wild food species and their cultivation, contributing to a loss of knowledge. To reverse this trend, community activists say everyone must continue foraging for them, growing them — and eating them.

The authors documented 99 wild edible plant species and 9 fungi species from 38 families used in the hearty meals and preparation of four ethnic groups; the Pahari, Gujjar, Kashmiri and Bakarwal. Among them, Pahari people used the highest number of wild plant species followed by Gujjar, Kashmiri and Bakarwal. The use of tender leaves for food and medicinal purposes was the most frequent overall, while the tubers were the least used.

While there were similarities and differences in food species and dietary practices between the groups, intergenerational traditional knowledge gap between elders and the young was the major driving force for traditional knowledge loss among these communities.

“The documentation which is first of its kind done from the perspective of food ethnobotany, was crucial given the species richness among ethnic groups and the [loss of traditional] knowledge impacted by multiple factors,” says Shiekh Marifatul Haq, one of the study’s authors and an ethnobiologist from Ilia State University in Georgia.

From lost to found

Unlike other mountain communities, loss of traditional plant knowledge in Kashmiri communities — whose economic status is more stable — is happening because locals prefer buying vegetables from markets and stores rather than foraging in the wild.

“This economic transition failed to strengthen the valuable knowledge that existed in the community and transfer it to the next generation for preservation,” Haq told Mongabay.

In contrast, Gujjar and Pahari communities living near forests actively use traditional wild plants and medicine for sustenance — strengthening their capability to remember. They forage for wild foods and successfully sell them in local markets at a reasonable cost. The authors say this is an example of traditional foods helping boosting food security. Of the wild plant species studied, 19 of them are of had high economic value, availability and ability to grow in harsh climates.

In the face of climate change, the authors say that some of these plant species can help adapt to  extreme weather, like the decline in rainfall and snowfall which the Kashmiri Himalayas are prone to, and show promise in enhancing food security.

“Many herb species like Palanga, (Capsella bursa-pastoris), Haand (Cichorium intybus), Masnoori (Portulaca oleracea), Lakut-Gull (Plantago lanceolata) and Heand (Taraxcum officinale) which are climate resilient and grow as weeds in the study area. These could additionally become a part of home gardens to overcome food scarcity issues in near future,” says Haq.

A few plant species like Longud (Diplazium maximum) that are used to heal piles and Oola (Rumex nepalensis) that are consumed to cure rheumatic pain also had market and medicinal value and played an important role as food during harsh winters.

Because of their high value, fifty-eight-year-old Kashmiri farmer Mohd Abdullah sees the loss of knowledge among those in the entire community as a problem. He emphasizes the need to revive the traditional knowledge and skills to safeguard the food sources and foster food sovereignty for the next generation. Realizing the gap of traditional ecological knowledge, community members including his family set out in the Himalayan ranges to forage foods in springtime from mid-March to May.

“Walking up the Himalayas in search of food was a norm in our culture, but we now include our children so to inculcate these values and knowledge in them,” Abdullah told Mongabay.

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  Bergenia ciliata, locally known as Butpewa, used for herbal tea and medicine by Gujjar, Pahari and Bakarwal communities. Image by Shiekh Marifatul Haq.
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  Phytolacca acinose, locally known as Hapat-chur or Brand, used by Gujjars, Pahari and Bakarwal communities. Image by Aadil Abdullah Khoja.
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  Pteridium revolutum, locally known as Kunji, dried for winter use for food by Gujjar, Pahari and Bakarwal communities. Image by Shiekh Marifatul Haq.
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  Portulaca oleracea, locally known as Nunner and Masnoori, used for food by Gujjar and Kashmiri communities. Image by Shiekh Marifatul Haq.
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  Geopora arenicola, locally known as Shajkan and Kanmangdu, used for food by Gujjar, Pahari and Kashmiri ethnic groups. Image by Shiekh Marifatul Haq.
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  One of the sampling locations for data collection in Bungus Valley, Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. Image by Shiekh Marifatul Haq.

Wild vegetables are cooked, either stir-fried or boiled for meals, wild fruits are primarily consumed raw. For example, the stems of kunji (Pteridium revolutum), and tender leaves of herb (Phytolacca acinose), are boiled, dried, and preserved to consume for winters. While a few species are used for medicinal purposes. The tree bark of west Himalayan fir locally known as Bunder (Abies pindrow), the fern species Diplazium maximum, the tender leaves of a herb (Phlomoides bracteosa), and fruit of a shrub (Viburnum grandiflorum) have both food and medicinal values.

However, a number of challenges beyond a knowledge gap between the old and young remain. Gender plays a role in who remembers and knows, and who does not. As women most often actively participated in the food foraging process, they had more knowledge about wild edible plants (51.49%) as compared to men (45.51%) who mostly traveled outdoors for work.

Abdullah from Thandipora Dardpora says he has also observed a decline in medicinal plant population and species migration due to unpredictable weather patterns led by climate change.

“A few of them like Kuth (Saussurea costus) and Trupattri (Trillium govanianum) have declined over the years. Despite over-extraction, the fluctuations in rain and snowfall could be a major culprit,” says Abdullah.

But the popularity of the species can also be a problem leading to their depletion in Gujjar and Bakarwal communities. For the Gujjar people, because their lands and forests are repositories of rich plant species they commonly forage in, people from outside the communities come to over extract the resources to make money.

“This is taking a toll on the conservation of species that have high economic values,” says 24-year-old Idrees Khatana from Gujjar community in Satboin, Kralpora. However, he told Mongabay that the community knowns to cultivate wild foods sustainably and give these sources time to replenish.

To prevent these species from getting depleted, elders are teaching young people to recognize the richness of the food sources and how to seek alternative food sources to conserve valuable species.

“As guided by the elderly members, we have been collecting wild plant species that are mostly away from water sources and reservoirs. These practices have aided to better food quality and conservation of both the water and food sources that support the species’ sustainable growth.”

Banner image: Morchella esculenta mushrooms, locally called gucchi. Image by Anita Sobrino via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

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Citation

Haq, S. M., Khoja, A. A., Waheed, M., Siddiqui, M. H., Alamri, S., Alfagham, A. T., … Bussmann, R. W. (2024). Food ethnobotany of forest resource in the high-altitude Himalaya mountains: Enhancing the food sovereignty of ethnic groups. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103247. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103247