1256 Trends in Biosciences 8 (5), 2015 Forest Resources Use for Building Livelihood Resilience in Ethnic Communities of Jharkhand M.A. ISLAM 1* , R RAI 2 AND S.M.S. QULI 3 1 Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir, Wadura, Sopore-193201, J&K 2 Tropical Forest Research Institute, ICFRE, P.O. RFRC, Jabalpur-482 021, MP 3 Faculty of Forestry, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi-6, Jharkhand *email: ajaz_jsr@yahoo.co.in/ ajaztata@gmail.com Trends in Biosciences 8(5), Print : ISSN 0974-8, 1256-1264, 2015 ABSTRACT The study documents forest resources use for building livelihood resilience among ethnic communities (Munda, Oraon and Lohara) of Bundu block in Ranchi district of Jharkhand, India. The findings revealed that the ethnic households make extensive use of 11 different plant parts namely, fruit (28 species), leaf (32 species), bark (2 species), flower (6 species), seed (9 species), twig (5 species), stem (30 species), tuber/ root (7 species), floss (1 species), exudates (4 species) or whole plant (6 species) of about 64 important plant species belonging to 54 genera and 36 families to meet their daily livelihood needs from forests. The plant resources utilized by the ethnic people were mostly represented by trees (37 species) followed by herbs (9 species), shrubs (8 species), climbers (6 species), bamboos (2 species) and fungi (2 species). The ethnic people in the area frequently consume animal resources, viz., red ants, termites, rats/ mouses, fishes, frogs, toads, snakes, small wild animals, birds, crabs, slugs, snails, wild honey and bee wax as food to supplement their nutrition and health needs. The traditional knowledge on the use of forest resources by the tribes is dwindling due to urbanization and fast development. Hence, the findings of the study will be helpful in strengthening the forest resources based livelihoods for socio- economic improvement and poverty alleviation of the ethnic communities of Bundu block in Ranchi district of Jharkhand. Key words Livelihood, Forests resources, NTFPs, Munda, Oraon and Lohara tribes, Ranchi, Jharkhand. The livelihoods among ethnic communities in India is complex, dynamic and multi-dimensional phenomenon (Singh, et al., 2009), the perception of which varies with geographic location, type of community, age, gender, education, fluctuations in resources, services and infrastructures and social, economic, cultural, ecological and political determinants (Kumar, et al., 2009). The capability of agriculture and livestock production to form sustainable livelihoods of ethnic poor is in continuous decline because the current overall endowments of production, distribution of productive assets and productive abilities are out of alignment with what is needed (Mourlin, 2007). Consequently, the ethnic people are constrained to earn their livelihoods from forest resources. There is a multitude of studies on the traditional knowledge and livelihood support of forest resources focusing on specific aspects like non- timber forest produces (NTFPs) (Anon., 2010a; Anon., 2010b; Bhat and Tiwari, 2011; Bhattacharya and Patra, 2007; Gharai and Chakrabarti, 2009; Kandari and Omprakash, 2009; Pandit, 2011; Vidhyarthi and Gupta, 2001), wild edible plants (Baruah and Mondal, 2010; Islam and Jha, 2001; Singh, et. al. , 2012; Sinha and Lakra, 2005), medicinal plants (Gupta, et. al., 2009; Mairh, et. al., 2010; Mohanty, et. al., 2011; Mohiuddin, et al., 2012; Sahu, et. al., 2003; Singh and Shanpru, 2010), medicinal animals (Prabhakar and Roy, 2009; Roy and Singh, 2007) , etc. Forests are important renewable natural resources generating livelihood requirements for more than 25% of the world’s population (Anon., 2001). Forestry is the second largest land use in India after agriculture covering 21.05% of the total geographical area of the country (Anon., 2011). Forests provide a wide spectrum of livelihoods for ethnic communities in the form of direct employment, self-employment and secondary employment. The self employment in forestry create local people’s livelihoods through the sale of fuel wood and fodder, grazing, lopping and grass cutting, forest based handicrafts and cottage industries, sericulture, lac cultivation, bee keeping, charcoal burning, leaf plate making, liquor making, rope making and basketry, medicines, collection, processing and marketing of NTFPs, cultivation of agricultural crops under agri- silvicultural practices, livestock rearing, social and farm forestry and availing of rights and