The Benevolent Perspectives of Plants Associated with Tapovan of Deoghar District, Jharkhand (Iindia)

Forests provide food, medicine, energy, shelter, various wood and non-wood products to sustain life. In addition, forest plants render numerous essential services as a component of global life sustaining system. The present work deals with certain utilitarian aspects of forest plants that were documented from the Tapovan, a sacred place which located 10 km from the Deoghar Town. It is mainly famous for Tapo Nath Mahadev, the temple of Lord Shiva. It is named Tapovan because in the olden days the van (forest) was a meditation spot (Tapobhumi). The present study shows how the socio-cultural and spiritual values influence the way human communities perceive plants and how religious beliefs and practices affect the way plants are understood, utilized and managed. Through field work and intimate contact with the persons who have spared their traditional knowledge as 188 plant species could be documented as phytoresources. The family-wise account of use potential of plants was analyzed to get a comprehensive idea about the percentage representation of prevalent plants in each category of use-pattern. The ornamental plants of the sites constitute majority in Tapovan area. Next to come are the shade-giving plants which constitute about 76% of total species recorded. The plants, parts of which are utilized particularly for offering to God considered as sacred are 13%. The species used as source of consumable vegetables constitute 16% and 26% species are used as fruits. There are good number of medicinal plants sustained in the area.