Fruits are gift from nature to humans; they are not only sweet and refreshing, but also nutritionally rich, enriching people's daily diets. The relation of human being with wild edible fruits is old as human civilization. People dependency on these fruits are more as compared to people who lived in cities. Since, these fruits are predominantly occurs near the forest and village community. The scenario of these fruits in the Himalayas is quite different. Himachal Pradesh is one of the important part of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) which is known for rich biodiversity and unique ecosystem. Because of the fragile ecosystem in the world, the Himalayas is also an important indicator of climate change and highly vulnerable. Due to the large altitudinal range in Himachal Pradesh, a large coverage of biodiversity can be easily seen and Wild Edible Fruits (WEFs) are one of them. Important or popular WEFs which are commonly consumed by the villager or community people in Himachal Pradesh are Aegle marmelos, Artocarpus lacucha, Berberis aristata, Bombax ceiba, Carissa spinarum, Cordia dichotoma, Cornus capitata, Corylus jacquemontii, Crataegus songarica, Diospyros lotus, Elaeagnus umbellata, Ficus auriculata, Ficus palmata, Hippophae spp., Juglans regia, Morus alba, Myrica esculenta, Phyllanthus emblica, Physalis peruviana, Pinus gerardiana, Prunus armeniaca, Punica granatum, Prunus mira, Pyrus pashia, Ribes alpestre, Rubus ellipticus, Rubus niveus, Solanum nigrum, Viburnum mullaha and Ziziphus mauritiana. I used botanical name instead of common name because these are easy to find in the web or internet.
The knowledge of these WEFs is lacking day by day among people which means we are loosing an important heritage of Himalayas. People and young generation should aware about these because nutrient deficiency is the biggest problem in the nation and only these WEFs will be helpful in combating such issues. If the nature provides us these nutritional packets i.e., WEFs then what is the need to buy supplementary medicines like vitamin and protein capsules, tablets and syrups? To make a healthy nation and strengthening the nutritional security, lets popularize these WEFs among youths and community people to make a nutritionally rich nation. We will not only popularize these WEFs in Himachal Pradesh but in other parts also. This will definitely helps in conserving the traditional knowledge in present as well as also make them available for future generations. However, a short compilation of these WEFs is also compiled in a video just to provide picture, scientific name, common name and family. Watch the video, please like, comment and share for more popularization.
WEFs of Himachal Pradesh
