Impact of Environmental Change on Natural Resource-based Food System of Tribal Communities of North-Western Region in Bangladesh

Abstract

In my study, I have tried to show the biological resources and diversity form on the basis of both the ecology and economy of Bangladesh. Most of the essential sectors related to human life are heavily depend directly or indirectly on these biological resources. As my understanding, it is found from the researches done by scholar biologist the world biodiversity may be divided into three. These are species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity. According to the government survey report (BBS 1991), the total number of Adivasi was 12, 05,978 which is only 1.03 percent of the total population. In the last census of Bangladesh government (BBS, 2011), total tribal population is 1586,141 which is 1.10 per cent of the total population. In my study I tried to find out the socio-economic status of the tribal people in northwestern region in Bangladesh. In the study area basically there are three major tribal groups. These are Santal, Oraon, and Pahan. The others are Munda, Barman, Rabidas and Mahali are living with their culture, customs, tradition and social values. Moreover, some tribes like Mahali, Rabidas has their traditional occupation. It is found that among tribal people, 60.94% households are involved in agricultural day labor activities. Around 22.14% household depend on their own cultivable land for production, 5.99% in various formal and non-formal service sectors (Offices support staff, Security guard and Garments factory), 2.34 % of total sample HHs are involved in livestock rearing. 2.86% tribal households were found involved with small business activities (Petty shop, tea stall). Among the Mahali and Roabidas tribal community have their own tradition occupation e.g. shoe making and repairing, bamboo material etc. Regarding average monthly income of the households, majority (50.26%) of the households are up to 4000.00 BDT (U$ 50) per month. Only 3.13% reported that their income is more than 6000.00 BDT (≤ U$50). The Santal is the major tribal population in the North Bengal of Bangladesh. Other tribal are Oraon, Mahali, Pahan, Munda, Pahari etc. who have unique culture and food habit. The main food of the tribal eat rice. Vegetable, meat of wild birds and animals, fruits and different species of fish are their favorite food. They also like cow meat, buffalo, sheep, goat and chicken’s meat. They fond of some unconventional wild animal’s e.g. Wild rabbits, mongooses, tortoise, eels, crabs and snail. The pork is very favorite meat of the Santal. As traditional drinks they use a homemade alcohol. They called it Hundi (A kind of rice beer). In any occasion it is mandatory and social accepted. Food habit of the tribal people is more or less same. Conventional item like rice, pulses, fresh fish, dry fish, meat, milk, egg, leafy vegetables, other vegetables (brinjal, bitter gourd, sweet gourd, white gourd, bottle gourd, country bean, cauliflower, cabbage, yard long bean, okra, plantain stem, radish and arum) potato, tomato, fruits (banana, apple, bitter plum, guava, grapes and papaya), tea, cigarette and tobacco were the intake of the tribal people. It is observed that tribal people ate rice of an amount of 580 g/capita/day which was 24.20% higher than the national average. The tribal people in the study area, mostly ate a very low quantity of meat (14.84 g/capita/day) and fresh fish (25 g/capita/day). Their consumption basket contained very little quantity of pulses (10 g/capita/day), milk (3.84 ml/capita/day), egg (0.1 no./capita/day), sugar/molasses (2.94 g/capita/day) etc. They consumed pulses, fish, milk, egg, oil, and sugar/molasses far below the national average. They consumed edible oil (10.45ml/capita/day) close to national average (9.4 ml/capita/day) that is bellow than national average. Land, fisheries and forest resources are economically, ecologically, culturally and aesthetically important to the nation. From the global perspectives, the main issues facing by the international tribal community generally are exploitation of these natural resources. It was observed that over use of natural resources is mainly responsible for the loss of bio- diversity that is main food source of tribal people. Destruction of wetlands has a negative impact on poor people especially the tribal people in the study area. The tribal people capture indigenous fisheries items (snail.) that is the main source of protein for the poor tribal. Again loss or depletion of animal and plant species limits the productive opportunities of rural area. To find out the perception on environmental changes in the study area, 10 no’s of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were conducted. In those FGDs a total of 133 tribal people whose age was between 40 to 60+ years. Among them, 90.98% participants said that the environment is changing. Very few percentage participants (9.02%) answered negative. In the study area a total 56 number of fish species were found. Among them 28.57%(16) fish species were found commonly available, 33.93% (19) were moderately available, 23.93 (13) fish species were found rarely available in the study area. On the other hand, 7.14 (4) fish species were critically endanger and 1.14 (4) fish species are endanger. The declining of the fish biodiversity leads to the tribal food insecurity. The study found that average per capita calorie intake among the tribal people is 2153 Kcal that is lower than national average (2318.3Kcal). Besides, among the farm land holding tribal families (28.2%) daily calorie intake is 2582.36 kcal that is upper than the recommended by FAO. Based on calorie intake, most of the sample households (62.6%) were found food insecurity since their per capita per day calorie intake ≥2153. It was high among the tribal who have farm land, service holder and engaged in rather than agriculture daily labor is more food secure since their per capita calorie intake ≤2582.36Kcal. From the field study, it is found that due to the devastating natural calamities like drought, flood, cold wave, heat wave and tornedo. As a result, the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sectors are affected. These situation leads to decline major crop production even livestock sector also damages. Moreover, the waterbodies in the study area was dried due to drought, therefore, fish production failure. The tribal people faced several risk factors and constraints in improving their livelihood. These factors were lack of modern technology, education, agricultural land, reduction of land productivity due to drought and natural calamities like flood, drought, and low rainfall. They identified some other problems in their livelihood. These were: loss of biodiversity, loss of wetland resource and forest resources.