Birhors of Chhalkari village of Topchanchi. Picture by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, April 11: If Jharkhand has its first bio-diversity register, it must be grateful to the Birhors, the primitive tribesmen of the region.

For, a handful of these tribesmen settled in Chhalkari in Naxalite-hit Topchanchi block of Dhanbad, about 35km off the district headquarters, have shared their knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants with a group of researchers in Dhanbad working on a people’s bio-diversity register (PBR).

A PBR is a documentation of information on the ecology of a village or panchayat, the practices of the people, their lifestyle, the local flora and fauna, socio-economic conditions and many other points. The register is likely to be included in the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge published by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The register would help in setting up a bio-diversity information system for implementing the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and authenticating the information about a village or panchayat.

“We know only 25 per cent of the earth and its people, the rest is unknown to us. Hence, we are trying to study this part of our state. We came to know a lot of unique things from the Birhors, known for their magical sense of nature,” said Ashutosh Mairh, the bio-science teacher of DAV Public School, Koylanagar, and a researcher in the team of six students and three academicians from different universities of the state.

Among the six student researchers, Prabhat and Lokesh Mallick, former students of DAV Public School, Koylanagar, are on job. Manish and Ranglal Mandal have appeared for their CBSE Plus Two examinations and two others, Neha Rajgariya and Amit Shukla, are studying.

Apart from doing a documentary, Samvedna (compassion), on the Birhors, the team studied its livelihood, medicines and sources of sustenance. “We were surprised to know about their use of various herbs, plants and their roots,” said Mairh.