Uses, preference, cultural importance and informant consensus factor of tree species in Uttarakhand: A case study from Bhilangana Watershed (Western Himalaya, India)

Residents in the hilly area of Indian Himalaya are largely dependent on tree resources for their livelihoods. The local knowledge and traditional practices are vanishing in rural areas due to drastic change in lifestyle and land use pattern. Diversity and tree species used by residents of Bhilangana watershed for their everyday needs have not yet been adequately recorded. Available information is mainly on ecology and geology of the region. Therefore, the aim of the study was to document tree diversity and extant local knowledge on tree species. Extensive surveys were conducted during 2018-19 to assess tree diversity, local knowledge on tree utilization through personal interview of 158 local residents. A total of 187 tree species belonging to 131 genera and 58 families were recorded and of these, 174 species were of ethno-botanical importance with at least one or multiples uses. Around 56.68% of tree species belonged to 15 dominant families. Ethno-botanical important species were classified into different use categories by local according to their use. Among use categories, 19.78% trees were used for medicine, 28.34% edible, 45.98% fodder, 59.89% fuel and 6.95% with no direct use in the area. The value of relative frequency of citation (RFC) for 28 tree species was calculated 1 which shows the relative high popularity/preference of these species and cultural importance (CI) value was found between 1 to 3.09 for 38 trees which signify the importance of tree species in the area. The highest informant consensus factor (0.99) was found for edible and religious followed by fibre (0.98), timber (0.98), fodder (0.974) and fuel (0.97). These findings highlight the importance of tree resources in mountainous regions.