We are indebted to many departments, organisations and individuals for their co-operation in preparation of this report. We acknowledge the Ministry of Environment & forests for providing an opportunity to undertake this study.

We are thankful to the officials and staff of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, Barsoor District for providing factual information on the project as well as for accommodation and logistic support for the study. We express our gratitude to the officials and staff of the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, Jagdalpur for their ready assistance whenever approached. We particularly than Mr. Gulati, Conservator of Forests, Mr. Silaker, Divisional Forest Officer and Mr. A.K. Dubey, Working Plan Officer, for their unfailing help and cooperation throughout our field work in bastar. We are grateful to Mr. Dharmendra Shukla, Director, Indravati Tiger Reserve for facilitating our visit to Indravati Tiger Reserve and Bhairamgarh Sanctuary and giving us information on these areas. We thank Mr. Basu, Deputy Ranger, Barsoos and other staff members of the Forest Department who helped us in field work and in collecting relevant information from official records.

We are thankful to Mr. Verma, Bastar Society for Conservation of Nature, (BASCON), Dr. Shekhar Singh, I.I.P.A., Delhi, Dr. Mann and Dr. Rizvi, Anthropology Survey of India, Dehradun and Mr. Nashkar, Anthropology Survey of India, Jagdalpur, for the related information and suggestions for survey methodology on sociological aspects of tribes of Bastar. Special thanks are due to Mr. M.A. Iqbal of BASCON and his tribal friends for their friendly guidance in the field and for collecting information on ethnobotany. Our field assistance are acknowledged for standing by us during the long hot ours of field work in difficult terrain.

We are thankful to all the faculty members of Wildlife Institute of India for their valuable suggestions and stimulating discussions which greatly helped us in preparing this report. We express our profound gratitude to Dr. W.A. Rodgers, who took special interest in this study. His suggestions during field work and critical review of the first draft of the report was valuable. We acknowledge Dr. G.S. Rawat for identifying the plants, and Dr. Ajith Kumar for his help in data analysis. We acknowledge Mr. S.K. Mukherjee, Additional Director, for his incessant help in administrative matters related to the project and also for his suggestions at various stages of the preparation of this report.

Thanks are also due to Rajesh Thapa, Mr. Manoj Aggarwal and Mr. M.P. Aggarwal for assistance in cartography and word processing.

We gratefully acknowledge the help of all other persons who helped us in many ways and who remain unwittingly unacknowledged here.