Traditional food knowledge of local people and its sustainability in mountains of Uttarakhand State of India

Traditional recipes

The present study documented 38 cuisines traditionally prepared by the local people of Uttarakhand State by using different cereals, pseudo-cereals, millets, pulses, spices and vegetables. Twenty-three recipes, as documented, related to main food course or primary dishes consumed routinely. Apart from boiled rice and chapattis of wheat flour, as described in Table ​Table2,2, chapattis of madua, baadi, jhangoru and kauni were frequently consumed dishes with fanu, chaisu, gathoni, thechwani, kafli, kadhi, aloo ke gutke and bodi. Depending on the village locality as per elevation, the chapattis of jau, marsa, kuttu and phapar were also consumed. Kuttu (Fagopyrum esculantum) and phapar (Fagopyrum tataricum) were grown in the high altitude areas; therefore, they were consumed mainly by the community living in those areas. Chyun and guchhi, being wild mushrooms, were available during monsoon season and consumed during July and August with chapattis of wheat and finger millet. Kandali kee sabji, being seasonal, was also prepared during the season as the fresh sprouts, and mild leaves of Urtica dioica were used for making this vegetable. Chhachhindu was consumed alone, and stuffed parantha was eaten with curd or bhangjeera ki chatney. Generally, for breakfast, chapattis with vegetables and paranthas with curd and chutney were consumed. At lunch, boiled rice, boiled jhangora and boiled kauni were consumed either with chaisu or fanu or gathoni or thechwani or jholi or kadhi or kafli or bodi. Sometimes, the local people cooked more than three dishes together. At dinner, chapattis of wheat and finger millet were consumed with vegetables. Mattha was consumed during daytime but was avoided after sunset. Raithu and bhangjeera ki chatney were the relish food items used as condiments to enhance the flavour of routine dishes (Table ​(Table22).

The local people made a variety of vegetable fritters which they used to eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner either alone or with the main meals. The vegetable fritters include urd ke pakode, bhang ke pakode, bukhna, rot, aarsa, paitud and patudi. Most of the vegetable fritters such as urd ke pakode, bhang ke pakode, paitud and patudi were salty, except rot and aarsa, which were sweet. The local people also used to make some interesting traditional desserts to conclude the meal. The present study documented five traditional desserts, viz. jhangora kee kheer, marsa ke laddu, singori, halua and gulgula. Besides use for medical and nutraceutical purposes, a large number of cultural and religious values were also associated with these traditional food dishes (Table ​(Table22).

Toppling of traditional practices

Over the years, drastic changes have crept into the TFK system in the present study area. Since the food system comprises both farming and supply systems, it is pertinent to examine the traditional farming, supply and related systems for understanding the causes of changes in the traditional food system. Traditionally, different combinations of crops grown by the local people are based on the type of terrain and availability of water. The irrigated land that is primarily in the valleys is used to grow mainly paddy and wheat. The unirrigated land, which is mainly on the slopes in the form of terraced farms, is used for cultivation of mixed crops, including millets, pulses, and cereals. The land around homestead, which is called kitchen garden, is used for production of seasonal vegetables. Similar observations on home gardens are reported from other States in India (Kala 2010a). The land use practices, in the present study area, also vary along the altitudinal gradient (Fig. 2). In high altitude region, the agriculture land remains fallow during winter due to heavy snowfall and subsequent severe cold climatic condition. At middle altitude, the villagers cultivate crops interchangeably below and above the village locality, which helps in maintaining soil fertility in fragile agro ecosystem. The crops, cropping patterns, crops rotations and crop composition practiced along the altitudinal gradient in agro ecosystems of Uttarakhand are given in Fig. 2.

Since most of the land area is rainfed, crop production is precarious and dependent on the amount of rainfall and other climatic conditions. In view of reducing the anticipated risk, the farmers have increased the diversity of crops so that if one crop fails, the other crop may compensate the returns. This system of cropping is traditionally called as ‘baranaja system’ of cropping in which about 12 or more varieties of crops are grown together in view of maximising not only productivity but also maintaining soil fertility (Kala 2010b).

In Uttarakhand, traditional farming system that was completely organic in the past was closely connected with animal husbandry. The dung of domestic animals was scattered in the agriculture land for maintaining or enhancing land fertility, and in return, most of the crop residues were supplied to animals as feed (Kala 2004). This arrangement not only helped in declining the pressures on the pasturelands and nearby forests, but also supported the stability of natural ecosystem and environment (Kala 2014). However, over a period of time, a large part of the agriculture land has been left abandoned and animal husbandry declined drastically due to several reasons, including migration of local people and subsequent increase in vermin (wild animals that are believed to be harmful to crops). Besides, out migration has brought in severe changes in social, economic and environmental spheres (Farooquee et al. 2004; Nautiyal et al. 2007).

There have been drastic changes in the traditional practices and knowledge systems. With the shrinking of agricultural land, farming of many species, including Echinochloa frumentacea, Eleusine coracana, Setaria italic, Amaranthus viridis, Colocasia himalayensis and Perilla frutescens, have been drastically reduced. Earlier, about 100 varieties of paddy, 170 varieties of kidney beans, eight varieties of wheat, four varieties of barley and many varieties of pulses and oil seeds were grown annually by local farmers of Uttarakhand in their traditional mixed farming system (Zardhari 2000). Depending on the suitability of climatic conditions, earlier they began to sow seeds and plant and also refilled the gaps. Either unavailability or low availability of food plant species has declined the traditional cuisines and the knowledge interwoven with such traditional cuisines. Macrotyloma uniflorum, locally called as gahath or kulath, is one such species that was quite popular in traditional cuisines. It was even gifted to the relatives and friends as a local souvenir (Kala 2018).

Traditionally, local people believed that most foods either have heating or cooling effects on our bodies. Macrotyloma uniflorum is believed to help in keeping the body warm, and hence, a delicacy called gathoni is consumed with rice or chapattis during the harsh winters to keep the body warm. However, when the seeds of Macrotyloma uniflorum are soaked in water overnight, it is used to make a different delicacy called phanu consumed even during summer due to its cooling or neutral effects (Kala 2018). Besides being a good source of proteins, carbohydrates and minerals for humans, its stems and leaves are widely used as good-quality fodder for domestic animals.

Like other traditional crops, the farming of Macrotyloma uniflorum has reduced manifold in different areas even though it was one of the most preferred pulses in Uttarakhand (Kala 2018). Earlier, Eleusine coracana or finger millet was one of the most consumed millets in the Uttarakhand region and it was cultivated extensively. Still, Uttarakhand is the largest producer of finger millet after Karnataka in India. However, at present, its cultivation has declined sharply due to a fall in local consumption. Making round chapattis of its flour was always a tedious task; therefore, local people used to mix up some amount of wheat flour, which helped in rolling its dough for making round chapattis. Since many people use to avoid mixing wheat flour, they rely on a dish called baadi, in which the finger millet flour is cooked alone in boiled water. Encountering difficulty in making its chapattis and developing change in taste might have discouraged its large scale production.

Likewise, in finger millet, the production of most of the millets has declined over the years in the study area. The decline in diversity of crops grown in the traditional mixed farming system has impacted the overall productivity of traditional crops and finally the traditional food system. Besides outmigration, crop-raiding by monkeys and wild boars are held responsible for discouraging farmers from raising crops (Kala 2014). The traditional crops have mostly been replaced by high-yielding varieties and cash crops like potato, soybean, kidney bean and pigeon pea (Maikhuri et al. 1997; Nautiyal et al. 2007, 2013, 2017). Moreover, many people in Uttarakhand have considered their traditional food systems as underprivileged; hence, they began to adopt the food systems from the nearby states, including Punjab.

The local people also perceive that modern education and employment have shifted their dependency on the market forces and global mode of production, on which they have no control. The traditional system of crop diversification that was focused on the subsistence system and also reducing risk has been transformed largely to a much more uniform one, focused mainly on cash cropping. Over a period of time, the changes in raising food crops differ from one area to another. Some of the areas continue farming traditional crops while others either introduced partial changes or largely switched over to commercial crops. In some villages situated in the valleys, the local people began to replace staple crops largely from vegetables, especially pea and tomato in their farmlands. Earlier, a few plants of pea and tomato were grown by villagers in their home gardens only.

Similarly, there have been changes in the preparation of food. Burning wood and charcoal for cooking food were one of the traditional practices that kept the food’s nutritional contents intact. The utensils used for cooking and serving food have also changed over the years. Replacement of traditional utensils, mainly by pressure cooker for cooking, has become prevalent, which is also associated with a change in traditional food flavour.

We are thankful to the anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Social and Economic Development for suggestions and comments. We are thankful to the Directors, Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) Bhopal and Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru for support and facilities. The authors wish to acknowledge the help and support provided by the local people of Uttarakhand during the present study.