Cultural and biological adaptations at a lower middle hill area in Nepal

Abstract

In a lower middle hill area, east of Kathmandu, ethnic groups such as Tamangs, Parbates and Newars perceived that malarial zone were lower elevations where sal trees(Shorea robusta) were dominant. They commuted to the paddy fields in valley bottoms from settlements located in upper hills higher than malarial zone to avoid the malaria infection in the night time during hot season. On the other hand, there found ethnic minorities who have been living in malarial zone. The Danuwars is one of these lowlanders. We detected high prevalence of alpha⁺-thalassemia along with low prevalence of Hb E and G6PD deficiency among them, whereas the gene frequencies of alpha⁺-thalassemia among Tamangs, Parbates and Newars were low.