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A walk along an unnamed wetland (longitude 75.142860, latitude 15.082130) along Tadas Road in Adavisomapur village of Karnataka’s Haveri district revealed more than 20 edible and medicinal plants that people in the area source are from around the water body. These are not typical wetland plants as the elevated road has created dry embankments. Most of the plants Down To Earth (DTE) found are weeds that can adapt to both dry and wet conditions.
DTE would not have given them a second look if we had not requested three women, Neelamma Kemmannavar, Prerna Lokunde and Gangavva Washannavarm from Timmapur village in the Dharwad district to accompany us and help us identify these wild edible plants that they use sometimes in their kitchens. The level of excitement was high as these elderly women elucidated in impassioned Kannada about their myriad uses of the plucked bunches of leaves from the trees and shrubs that lined Tadas Road. Others such as Clitoria ternatea and Mimosa pudica were available in the area, but the women did not use them. Some of these have only medicinal value. Only one plant, Alternanthera sessilis (honagone soppu) is a true wetland plant. The others can adapt to both dry and wet conditions
DTE identified these plants using the local names that the women shared and the images of the plants foraged. We used the People’s Biodiversity Register of Dharwad district and also requested Ashok Bhosale of Sahaja Samruddha and RP Harisha of ATREE, Bengaluru, to help us with the identification.
Overall, we were able to identify 16 of the plants they foraged.
These included the following:
1. Stachytarpheta indica (kari uttarani)
2. Achyranthes aspera (uttarani soppu)
3. Alternanthera sessilis (honagone soppu)
4. Cassia tora (taratagi soppu)
5. Tamarindus indica (hunase hannina gida)
6. Senna alexandrina (nelavarike/alluri soppu)
7. Cocculus hirsutus (dagadi soppu)
8. Acacia pennata (seege soppu)
9. Teramnus labialis (adavi uddu)
10. Carissa carandas (kavale hannu)
11. Ziziphus oenopolia (barige)
12. Crotalaria pallida (gijigiji gida)
13. Tephrosea purpurea (empali)
14. Prosopis juliflora (jali soppu)
15. Sesamum indicum (advi ellu)
16. Ocimum americanum (naayi tulsi)
Most of these plants are used to prepare curries, sambar or podi chutneys. Some had distinct medicinal properties such as being good for the eyes or for joint pains or treating headaches. DTE could not identify six plants collected from the area.
Making the best of the field trip, the women collected large bunches of alluri soppu and tamarind to take back home. The bounty of food available in the area included a wild duck and a crab in the running-water stream. The women pointed out other plants that could be consumed too but we could not reach the area to identify the plant or even pluck a twig.
The following day, alluri soppu was on our plate. Neelamma had prepared it with lobiya beans, and it tasted good. There are research studies that indicate that the leaves of alluri soppu are good for the liver. Researchers in Bangladesh reported in PloS One in April 2021 that its leaf powder can reduce oxidative stress, inflammation and fat build-up in liver cells in high-fat diet-fed obese rats.
“Despite its rich wetland heritage and significant ecological and economic value, Karnataka faces mounting challenges from urban pressures and weak governance to shrinking protective zones,” says R P Harisha, a conservation biologist at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).
Karnataka has an area of 7.6 lakh ha (0.76 mha) of area under wetlands, which accounts for 4.4 per cent of total geographical area of state. Most of the wetlands in the state are human-made and tanks or ponds and reservoirs or barrages constitute 40.17 per cent and 31.85 per cent of the area respectively. Natural wetlands such as rivers and streams cover an area of around 23.61 per cent of total wetland area of state.
Across Karnataka, largely rural wetlands and particularly urban lakes suffer from encroachment, pollution, invasive species, siltation and poorly maintained buffer zones, compromising their ecological integrity. Wetlands in Karnataka are rich in seasonal food baskets and provide nutritional security in rural households even today, says Harisha. These foods are rich in iron, calcium and folate, and also act as climate-resilient foods during crop failure or lean seasons.
Communities such as Soliga, Halakki Vokkalu, Kuruba, and even those in agrarian villagers have traditionally harvested a variety of wild edible plants, tubers, fruits and aquatic foods. Some aquatic faunae such as small indigenous fish, freshwater crabs, snails and clams are also consumed by communities living near coastal wetlands. He too provided us a list of wetland flora in Karnataka. None of these overlapped with our list suggesting that our documentation is just a tip of what the local communities in the area know. This makes the theme of this year’s World Wetland Day (February 2, 2026) “Wetlands and traditional knowledge: Celebrating cultural heritage” extremely relevant.
To find out more about CSE's work on food systems based in wetlands, please click here