Juvenile Paris plant.

Paris polyphylla, commonly known as Satuwa belongs to the Melanthiaceae family. It is collected on a larger scale in northern part of India and in Nepal where it is traded for its medicinal value. Satuwa has been appearing in Bhutanese news for the past few years since people started its illegal trade. Since then, the collection of it has become rampant in all parts of the country where its occurrences are known. Though, its collection has been legalized in May 2015 in Bhutan, not much study have been carried out. Thus, it has become the national importance to understand its ecological status and extent of contribution to the livelihood of people, for the sustainable management of this plant. Understanding this has become important, as collectors have to up-root the whole plant, as the perceived valuable part of Satuwa is rhizome.

The project shall be undertaken in Chhokhor block of Bumthang district in Bhutan. Part of Chhokhor block falls within the administrative jurisdiction of the Wangchuck Centennial National Park. Wangchuck Centennial National Park is the largest national park amongst the ten national parks in the country. The project shall interview about 100 collectors of Satuwa to quantify the amount earned from the sale of it. A consultative meeting with the communities collecting the plant shall be organized to get a fair sense of distribution of the plant after which GPS points of places where plants occur shall be collected. A habitat assessment of the plant shall also be carried out to understand its associated species.

The project shall try to quantify the income generated from the collection and sale of Satuwa to the communities. Efforts shall also be made to understand the distribution of Satuwa within the study area along with the associated species. This project will achieve in reporting many new findings with regards to its ecology and its importance to the livelihood of the communities collecting it. The conservation priorities of the plant shall be recommended to the officials from the Department of Forests and Park Services and Wangchuck Centennial National Park. Awareness campaign shall also be organized to the communities with regards to the sustainability issues of Satuwa. The findings from this project shall be reported to the policy makers of Bhutan and also efforts shall be made to publish in the peer-reviewed journal.