Forest foods for tribals in selected regions of India and their sustainability

Abstract Traditional food and nutrition and their sustainability in tribal India are examined in this chapter. Many urban dwellers consider food from commons such as mountains, rivers, pasturelands, and forests as “primitive” and its consumers as “uncivilized” people. It is estimated that in India more than 100 million tribal people are dependent directly or indirectly on traditional forest food. This chapter examines how tribal people are increasingly facing challenges to access, consume, and manage wild edible nutritious forest food. It uses qualitative case studies of four particularly vulnerable tribal groups, Baigas, Paudi Bhuyans, Katkaris, and Kurumbas, of India. This empirical research highlights three categories that impact forest food, particularly related to women and children: (a) commercialization of forest foods as “superfood” due to its high nutrition value, (b) cultural acceptability wherein tribal people lose out their traditional food due to mainstreaming, and (c) challenges of sustainability due to loss of the forest resources.