Issues related to health and health care system and ground realities are vibrant, alarming and eyecatching in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. This paper emphasizes on traditional healers and healing practices prevalent among the Dhurwa tribe of Kanger Valley region of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, especially near Tirathagarh. The modern medicinal facilities are not easily approachable by the tribals and they mostly depend upon the traditional medicare and healing systems prevalent in their areas. The tribals are neither educated about the modern system of medical treatment nor provided with the required facilities in their residential areas. The local medicine­man or healer treats the ailing persons in their own houses or seats of the village deities. Illiteracy, unawareness, unfamiliarity and uneasiness sometimes stop them to go to the local dispensaries and health centers. Sometimes, they also easily fall prey of the exorcists and quacks in the area instead of good real traditionally trained healers. Though, various institutions are now concerned with the traditional health care system and means of traditional treatment, the tribal people are the real custodians of the medicinal plants spread in local forest area. Younger generation loosing interest in the traditional methods must also be made aware to protect effective traditional healing practices and valuable herbal plants before they get lost due to impact of modernization, urbanization and deforestation. Correct, collaborative and effective implementation of traditional medicinal practices along with proper co­ordination with the modern medicinal practices can prove more fruitful in this perspective.

Keywords: Health; Medicine­Man; Healing Practices; Ethno­Medicine.