International Journal of Research Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Volume 05 Issue 04 February 2018 Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/ Page | 1921 Nutritional Status and Traditional Food Practices of Karbi People Attached to Behali Reserve Forest, Assam Biplob Ozah &Dipankar Borah 1 Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Assam, 2 Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh Abstract: Nutritional study of any community gives us several knowledge of food habit, nature of food adoption and their impact on health. Agriculture based and forest depended nutrition always an unknown mystery to solve. The present study is based on such a situation of Karbi people of Bongaon village which is attached to Behali Reserve Forest, Assam. Several parameters like socio economic status, food habit, anthropometric measurementand health condition and forest dependent nutraceuticalswere used to assess the epidemiological study. Result has shown 80% of entire family still in the income range ≤ Rs. 5,000. There were 53% members of families crossed the HS level of education and 88% family livelihood was based on paddy agriculture. Rice is used as staple food by 100% families and many wild vegetables are used by them in their daily diet. Analysis of anthropometric parameters showed 70% and 53% normal BMI in adults of male and female respectively. The overall medical condition of both sexes showed that there was a prevalence of diseases like diarrhea, jaundice, food borne allergies and headache/migraine in that area. Therefore, the overall study may be concluded with the comparison of all interdependent parameters of adults of Karbi families with a hope to further research in this area using different age groups with other parameters. Keywords Behali Reserve Forest, Karbi, Socio Economic Status, food habit, BMI. Introduction Food is one of the basic necessities of our life. It is vital for maintaining our health and to perform our regular activities. Still today forested landscapes provides source of micronutrient rich food for millions of people around the world [1]. Forests are inevitable source for sustaining life and about 2.6 billion people, or 62% of the total population in developing countries, live in rural regions and directly obtain most of their food from their local environment (FAO, 1992) [2]. India is such one country with a total of 802,088 sq.km forest cover i.e. ca. 25% of the total geographical area, and Northeastern part of it covers the fourth of it [3]. It is a part of one of the four global biodiversity “hot spots” present in our country, the Eastern Himalayas [4]. Right from the high mountains to the low- lying undulating hills ending in vast plains, the eastern Himalayas provide homage to an incredible number of plants, animals and ethnic tribes. Behali Reserve forest is located at the foothills of the Eastern Himalaya, conjoining the border of two sister states (Assam and Arunachal Pradesh) [5]. The foothills, as natural borders between the plains and the hills, occupy a crucial position in the socio- political and economic landscape of northeast India [6]. Many villages cover the forest from both the sides. „Bongaon‟ is such one – it is a small village of with 51 numbers of households inhabited by one community “The Karbi‟s” of Assam. The ethnic and cultural practice of a community also has an impact on the food consumption pattern of the community [7]. It is estimated that 20-25% of rural peoples‟ income is obtained from environmental resources in developing countries [8]. Poverty and limited access to modern medicine are the main factors for their dependence on medicine, particularly in rural areas [9]. The purpose of nutritional assessment of a particular tribe or community is to discover facts about nutrition and health [10]. This study is based upon the socio economic status as well as nutritional status and their inter relationship of the Karbi adults of Bongaon village. The study investigated the traditional approach of food and the impact of agricultural dependency on overall life of those people. Methodology A food & health frequency questionnaire was developed at the beginning of the epidemiological survey [11]. The questionnaire consists of four parts viz. identification particulars, socio-economic status of family, dietary pattern of the family and overall health status. With the help of two anthropometric measures- height and weight, BMI of the adults were calculated. The subjects were selected from entire Bongaon village. The study was conducted taking 80 (40 male + 40 female) adults of 51Karbi families. For the anthropometric purpose measuring tape and weight balance were used to measure and the Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated separately for males and females. The ratio of weight (in kg)/ Height (m) 2 referred to as BMI. The BMI has a good correlation with fatness (over weight or obesity) [12]. The use of BMI as an anthropometric indicator of nutritional status can be more appropriate in a country with diverse ethnic groups, such as India [12]. In case of adults, the following classification suggested by James and coworkers as given in Table1 is extensively used at present [13, 14]. Result and Discussion A very low income range was found amongst the family of Bongaon. 80% of entire family still in the income range ≤