Socio-economic statusand dependency of ruralwomen of Dharwad, Karnatakaonnon-timber forest products (NTFPs)

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play a vital role in the daily life and welfare of the forest dwellers. Many of these people derive their major portion of the earning from NTFPs while others depend directly or indirectly on them. The present research study was carried out to know the socioeconomic status of rural women involved in NTFP activities and their dependency on NTFPs in the selected villages of Dharwad Taluk of Dharwad district, Karnataka state. The results showed that 42.00 per cent of the rural women were dependent on leaves of Muttala (Butea monosperma) tree followed by fuel-wood (20.67%), Pongamia seeds (19.33%) and edible gum (17.33%). None of the rural women was dependent on collection of medicinal plant parts, honey, fodder and leaf litter. Equal percentage of rural women collected aonla fruits and raw materials for basket and broom making and Karonda and jamun fruit collection. A large percentage of the respondents belonged to middle age group (60.00%), were married (76.00%) and illiterate (94.70%), engaged as farm labourers (68.67) having annual family income of more than Rs 11500 (46.00%) and lived in nuclear families (94.00%).