Geographical analysis of nutrition and related diseases of south Kashmir in District Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, India

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the “nutrition related” health issues altitudinal zone wise, based on chemical composition of food consumed by people in the region. The study area was divided into five altitudinal zones in GIS environment. Kendal’s ranking coefficient method, food surplus/deficit, nutrition intake was employed to show wide range of variations in terms of energy, protein, fat and calcium intake. The scenario of Nutrition related disease was worked out by applying Z score technique. Most of the population depends upon cereals for their basic food. Nutritional deficiency occurs maximum in higher altitudinal zones i.e. zone ‘D’ (C.I < 25.6) and zone ‘C’ (C.I 19.5-25.6) and low nutritional deficiency occurs in lower zones i.e. zone ‘A’ and zone ‘B’ (> C.I 19.3). The impact of this variation in nutrition intake pattern was reflected in the diseases which were found corresponding with the availability of food at each altitudinal zone. Nutritional status of the population in the study were found lower than the recommendations of Indian Council of Medical research Standards. Agriculture planning and nutritional awareness programs are badly needed to curb the grave problem and impose restrictions to land conversion a burning issue nowadays.