{"id":10500,"date":"2021-04-14T14:50:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T09:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nerising.in\/?p=10500"},"modified":"2021-04-14T20:07:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T14:37:38","slug":"assam-bihu-is-here-but-what-happened-to-traditional-varieties-of-herbs-and-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northeastrising.in\/test\/assam-bihu-is-here-but-what-happened-to-traditional-varieties-of-herbs-and-greens\/","title":{"rendered":"Assam: Bihu is here, but what happened to traditional varieties of herbs and greens?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assam, April 14:<\/strong> The month of April, when Rongali Bihu is just around the corner in Assam and spring paint every tree with young, delicate leaves and blooming flowers, this is Anamika Baruah\u2019s favourite time of the year.<\/p>\n

There are many wonderful memories of festivity associated with it\u2014The rongali Bihu festival in Assam celebrates New Year in the Assamese calendar\u2014but of all, it\u2019s a particular childhood memory that stands out.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year on Bihu Assam, I along with cousins and would accompany Aita (grandmother) in search of different varieties of xaak in the backyard of our house. She would tell us the name and why that particular leafy green was good for our health<\/strong>,\u201d Baruah, who is now a 50-year-old lady, said.<\/p>\n

An age-old tradition recommends the consumption of 101 varieties of xaak (pronounced haak in Assamese) on Bihu Assam, and Baruah said that she has grown up relishing the dish that is a concoction of all those varieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, however, I struggle to find all those varieties. Many of them have become rare; at best I put together 40-44 varieties<\/strong>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Guwahati-based Baruah is not alone in her dilemma. Beli Hazarika, a homemaker in Tezpur, similarly said that quite a few of the herbs and leafy greens that were once easily available and would go into the Bihu Assam dish are becoming difficult to source. \u201cMy mother would easily gather the akho-ek-bidh (101 variety) xaak from her vicinity during Bihu Assam; it\u2019s not as easy now. Greens like Matikaduri (Alternanthera sessilis) that were commonly found growing in damp places are no longer as easily seen<\/strong>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

Tradition rooted in science<\/span><\/h4>\n

The idea behind the customary feasting on different greens on Bihu Assam, said locals, is to improve immunity and ward off allergies and ailments that suddenly become common during this time of the year when the season changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery herb in this 101 variety is known for its particular medicinal value<\/strong>,\u201d Jayanta Deka, principal scientist at the Assam Agriculture University\u2019s<\/a><\/span> agronomy department told Mongabay-India. \u201cSo if one is good for skin allergy, another one is good for the stomach. Yet another is good for urinary tract disease<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhedai-lota, or skunk vine, for example, is known to have medicinal properties to treat stomach ailments, gastric problems, even rheumatic pains.<\/p>\n

Matikaduri, which is an aquatic weed, is known for its benefits on the urinary system, and Duroon bon or Leucas plant is known to be an effective remedy for cough and cold and also to treat intestinal worms in children.<\/p>\n

The list, however, is not binding, and depending on the area or tribe it is, there could be certain differences, depending on the availability of the herbs.<\/p>\n

Hazarika, for example, said that she adds one or two blades of grass to her Bihu Assam xaak special, apart from potato greens, ginger greens and the others. The beauty of this dish, she said, was that it allows one to be inspired by nature.<\/p>\n

And there is no dearth of inspiration during this time when plants flourish with the first rains. This is another reason why eating all these greens is recommended at this time \u2014 while people may eat these at other times too, they are available in plenty during Rongali Bihu Assam.<\/p>\n

\n
Also Read<\/span>:<\/span><\/strong> Rongali Bihu celebrated in Assam during lockdown<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n

\n

Unplanned urbanization and its cost<\/span><\/h4>\n

Over time, however, some of these herbs \u2014 like the three mentioned \u2014 which were once found growing in the wild, beside drains, near ponds, and in people\u2019s backyards, have become less commonly seen.<\/p>\n

Hazarika, an avid gardener herself, thinks it\u2019s because of urbanization that these herbs have either become rare or have been pushed deeper into the wilderness. \u201cThe image of a drain has changed over time; earlier drains were just a passage for rainwater to flow through. No one would throw garbage in them and herbs like Matikaduri and Brahmi for instance would grow wildly in the vicinity<\/strong>,\u201d she said, \u201cIn fact, people would sow brinjal and chilli seeds near these damp areas. But now along with becoming concrete, drains have become filthy and these herbs wouldn\u2019t be found in urban areas<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ishwar Barua, the scientist at AAU, agreed and added that \u201cunplanned urbanization<\/strong>\u201d is one of the reasons behind many herbs and local species of plants becoming rarer to find in Assam.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestruction of land resources, conversion of forest land for other purposes, unplanned urbanization are all reasons behind some of our local species of plants not being seen as commonly as they were once upon a time<\/strong>,\u201d Barua said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, we have more than 100 varieties of Dhekia xaak (fiddlehead fern); it\u2019s one of the most primitive land plants. But now many of those varieties have become scarce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loss of water bodies \u2014 where a number of aquatic weeds flourish \u2014 to urbanization is another reason behind this trend, said Pallab Kumar Sarma, chief scientist at the Biswanath College of Agriculture, citing the example of Guwahati, the biggest city in Assam.<\/p>\n

According to one paper, Guwahati Metropolitan Area has seen an increasing trend of built-up land and cultivated and managed areas in the peripheral areas of the city while natural and semi-natural vegetated lands have diminished.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Loss of the \u2018old way\u2019 of doing things<\/span><\/h4>\n

Yet another reason for some of the local herbs becoming rare is a change in cultivation practices and farm mechanization.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of herbs are categorized as weeds. Farmers, when they would do weed control in their paddy field and their land earlier, manually, would know which to remove and which to keep<\/strong>,\u201d Jayanta Deka said, \u201cBut now, with chemical weed control, that kind of sorting is no longer there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neelam Dutta, an organic farmer in Biswanath Chariali, agreed that herbicides and pesticides used in agricultural practice are one of the reasons behind some of the herb species becoming rare.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonocropping of tea is another reason<\/strong>,\u201d Dutta told Mongabay-India. Vast landscapes in Assam, which were earlier farming fields growing paddy and other crops, are slowly turning into tea gardens. With the government\u2019s support to Small Tea Growers, tea cultivation has increased in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to travel from upper Assam towards Sonitpur and Dhemaji, across both the north and south bank of the Brahmaputra, earlier, you would see people\u2019s backyards flourishing as vegetable gardens or baari. That baari culture is now slowly being replaced with patches of tea gardens, so culture loss along with the use of pesticides in the organized sector of farming is two important reasons behind this trend,\u201d Dutta said.<\/p>\n

Changing lifestyle and food preferences is a reason both scientists and locals agree on behind the decreasing availability of local produce. Not just the herbs and greens, it is increasingly becoming difficult to spot local varieties of fruits, \u201clike Poniyal and Leteku<\/strong>,\u201d Deka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCultivation of non-local produce like strawberries and apple bear has gone up and are therefore more easily available. Lack of commercial value of some of the local produce is the reason behind their decline<\/strong>,\u201d Deka opined.<\/p>\n

It is for this reason, he said, that some herbs like Brahmi which has memory-boosting power, are known and commercially available, while the lesser-known cousins, like Tengesi tenga (Indian sorrel) which also has the property of improving memory and soothe insect bites, are not acknowledged as much.<\/p>\n

This gap feels Neelam Dutta can be bridged through academics and if children are introduced to indigenous traditional knowledge in schools.<\/p>\n

\n

Climatic condition plays a role too<\/span><\/h4>\n

Change in climatic patterns, \u201clike increase in temperature and longer summers, erratic rainfall<\/strong>,\u201d said Ishwar Barua, has, in addition, led to certain invasive weed species making an appearance that has been detrimental to the local species.<\/p>\n

\u201cParthenium is one such example<\/strong>,\u201d Barua said, and the process of chemically removing this weed results in affecting the other local herbs and weeds like Manimuni (or Asiatic pennywort), Kola kosu (colocasia or elephant ear) and even coriander.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is, in fact, a weed that closely resembles Matikaduri and while Matikaduri is becoming rare to spot, this weed species is invading its space<\/strong>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n

All hope, and xaak, is not lost<\/span><\/h4>\n

There is, however, a silver lining to the cloud. While scientists and locals observe the lowering visibility of some of the local herbs, it does not necessarily mean that they have been lost forever.<\/p>\n

Just like foreign, invasive species of weeds, found in places as far as Australia and New Zealand, are now appearing in Assam, Deka said that some of the local herbs have also migrated, deeper into the woods, to cooler places close to the hills, where conditions are more suitable for their propagation.<\/p>\n

Fossil records and research studies have highlighted that plants have, over aeons, migrated in response to climatic changes. An article Plant Migration and Climate Change in American Scientist says: plants have moved fast enough to track climate change, and may be capable of faster migration than is seen in the paleo-record.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile invasion by an exotic species on a native plant community may not be the same as the movement of a native species in the wake of climate change, in both cases, plant populations come to occupy new territory via dispersal and reproduction<\/strong>,\u201d it further says.<\/p>\n

Ishwar Barua agreed, although, he said, that there has been no scientific study yet correlating climate change and the disappearing local species of herbs and fruits in Assam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that plant species are migrating to places where they are less susceptible; hence you find some herbs and weeds in villages and not in semi-urban and urban areas<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, the level of awareness about these species has also come down, hence these herbs are not as easily identified as they were earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stating an example, he talked of the pleasant re-discovery of a local plant, Samus paat, amid paddy fields growing Bao variety of rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been years since I had seen the plant and then suddenly after such a long time, chanced upon it again. So the plants, or at least some of them, are still there, but in hiding! And if given a chance, nature will self-heal and recuperate.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assam, April 14: The month of April, when Rongali Bihu is just around the corner in Assam and spring paint every tree with young, delicate leaves and blooming flowers, this is Anamika Baruah\u2019s favourite time of the year. There are many wonderful memories of festivity associated with it\u2014The rongali Bihu festival in Assam celebrates New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[56,62,27],"tags":[973,974,857],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nAssam: Bihu is here, but what happened to traditional varieties of herbs and greens? - North East Rising<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The month of April, when Rongali Bihu is just around the corner in Assam and spring paint every tree with young, delicate leaves and blooming flowers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northeastrising.in\/test\/assam-bihu-is-here-but-what-happened-to-traditional-varieties-of-herbs-and-greens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assam: Bihu is here, but what happened to traditional varieties of herbs and greens? 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