DIGITIZED INVENTORY OF DYE YIELDING PLANTS FROM MELGHAT TRIBAL REGION OF VIDARBHA

V. S. Dandge* and S. P. Rothe

ABSTRACT

Melghat is located on longitude 210211N, latitude 770220E, on southern off shoot of the Satpura Hill range. Chikhaldara, Dharni and Melghat extend over an area1300 sq. kms. It forms the major part of Amravati district of Maharashtra in India. Melghat has three distinct seasons namely monsoon, rainy and winter. Rainfall ranges from 1000 mm to 2050 mm during July to September. Winter is cooled and summer is extremely hot. Temperature varies from 6 0 C to 43.6 0C. The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak Tectona grandis. It is prime biodiversity repository of the state. There are over 700 naturalist species belonging to 400 genera and 97 families. There are 90 tree species, 66 shrub species, 320 herb species and 56 medicinal plant species of ethnobotanical importance. The tribal people such as Korku, Gond, Nihal, Balai, Gaolan, Gawali, Halbi, Wanjari used fire wood, timber, fodder, medicinal plants, fruits, flower, gum for various purposes. Plants roots, stem, leaves, flowers; fruits are also used for natural dyes. These natural dyes are used for decorating houses, cloths, food, mud pots, baskets, hairs. Near about 30 different plants from Melghat are used as natural dyes and different shades of colour obtained from these plants. These people used these colours during the celebration of their festival and marriage ceremony. The present study is an attempt in this direction, to explore the availability of natural dyes plants in Melghat as well as procedure related to preparation of natural dyes by the tribal societies in Melghat.

Keywords: Melghat, Tribals, Natural dyes.