Traditional Medicinal Plant Knowledge among Three Indian Tribal Populations in the Vindhyan Highlands: A Strategy for their Sustainability and Conservation

The ethnomedicines, utilisation of some edible wild plants for food, and related customary wisdom of the Gond, Kharwar, and Baiga tribes people in the Vindhyan mountain ranges of India were all examined in this study. Overall, Threat Impact (OTI) was used to evaluate anthropogenic threats to valuable species. A semi-structured, open-ended a survey was utilised to gather the data. Out of 36 families, 53 species were employed as wild foods, out of the 95 species there were 88 genera and 48 families that were documented for a variety of medical conditions. Most of the medical treatments were made from trees (44.42%), followed by climbers (12.64%) and herbs (29.47%). Elaeodendron glaucum (1.56) and Cissus quadrangularis (0.96), which have high utilisation high relative frequency of citation (RFC) and value (UV), were utilised to treat issues with poisonous bites and musculoskeletal disorders. Calotropis procera and Cassia tora were recommended for the management of eye and ear conditions issues, respectively, based on the strong consensus factor among informants (1.0) obtained. 9.5 and 24.2 percent of species, respectively, had extremely high and high OTIs for the thirteen categories of anthropogenic threats, moving them closer to extinction. Policies pertaining to wild foods and medicinal plants under different hazard categories must be connected to nutritional security and the preservation of highly prized species.