ETHNOBOTNICAL STUDIES OF SOME PLANTS USED BY TRIPURI TRIBE OF TRIPURA, NE INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MAGICO RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The present study was conducted in villages of different blocks of West Tripura and Khowai districts of Tripura to document the plant species used for magico-religious purposes and to identify the most important species by quantitative ethnobotanical indices. The data was collected through questionnaire and interviews. A total of 59 plants belonging to 42 families used in magico-religious practices were documented. Of these, 37 trees, 11 herbs, 4 grasses, 3 climbers and rest of 4 shrub, vine, woody climber were documented. The most dominant families were Apocynaceae and Poaceae with 4 species each followed by Arecaceae, Malvaceae, and Moraceae with 3 species and others with 1 or 2 species. The most utilized parts were leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, bark, roots and rhizome. The basic values namely frequency of citation (FC), use reports (UR), number of uses (NU) were determined to calculate ethnobotanical indices namely relative frequency of citation (RFC), relative importance index (RI) and cultural importance index (CI). Ocimum sanctum had first position in all indices (CI=1.0, RFC=0.83 and RI 1.00) with highest number of citations (FC=115), use reports (UR=144) and maximum number of uses (NU=4). It was followed by Aegle marmelos and Ficus religiosa. The species like Litchi chinensis, Mimusops elengii were less important due to least cultural importance index (0.01).