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The present investigation was carried out at different villages of Angara block of Ranchi district during April-2012 to March-2013 with the help of questionnaires and interview among the selected villagers.  The all selected villagers of Kuturlowa belonged under the category of marginal with land holding range of 0.75 to 2.50 acre(s). Although, other two selected villages (Koinardih and Sitadih) had no large category of farm family but the condition in terms of land holding is to some extent better than Kuturlowa village.

From the study it was found that different vegetables such as Dummar, Koinar sag, Genthi, Tewna, Petiya, Dura, Bengo,Jerbhanja, Kachnarphool, Jilhur phool, Koreya phool etc. among the summer vegetables; Karile, Kheksa, Kundri, Asari, Bamboo Mushroom, Rugra, wild Colocasia among rainy seasonal vegetables and Ketel sag, Pechki sag, Genthi, Tewna, Petiya, Dura, Bengo,Jerbhanja, etc. among the winter seasonal vegetables are the important supplementary food items from the forest for the villagers of studied areas. similarly, different fruits like Kend, Piyar, Bheluwa, Bael among summer seasonal fruits; black berry, Kusum, Mahuwa among rainy seasonal fruits and Aonla, Soyan Matha (winter seasonal fruit) are the supplementary sources of fruits from the forest for the villagers of the studied situates. Different edible oil sources available from the surrounding forests of the studied villages are Mahuwa, Kusum, Kujri etc. among the fuel wood trees Sal, Koreya, Putri, Sidha, Bael, Lerusinduar, Dhawtha, Dhotki, Kari, etc. are the important for the almost all villagers of the studied areas, and other materials by the selected villagers of the studied regions. The findings indicated that the average family (with 4.20 average family member) could managed to collect different forest resources that was estimated of about 1645.00 kg worth of Rs. 7102.70 for the Kuturlowa village, whereas, it was documented as 995.40 kg worth of Rs. 6941.70for the farm family of Koinardih (with average family size 5.30), but for the Sitadih village (with 6.30 mean family members) had the opportunity to collect 841.80 kg forest resources with their approximate value of Rs. 3924.90 for the month of April-2012.. Similar, observations were documented for the remaining months of the year-2012 as well as first quarter of the current year-2013. Comparative study on income from forest resources collected by the selected villagers throughout the year revealed that the March and April were the most income earning months for almost all the selected villages of Angara block. This type of observation supported the livelihood related dependancy on the forest resources during the off season of the summer months when maximum fields remain fallow due to acute shortage of irrigation water. Thereby, the villagers that time inclined towards the forest based resource collection, most specifically firewood and different summer fruits collection. The maximum average annual income (Rs. 55180.87) was recorded for the individual selected farm family of Koinardih village followed by Kuturlowa (Rs. 42401.13) and Sitadih (Rs. 40854.88) Villages.  Although there was no significant differences among selected farmers of the three villages but comparatively higher per family annual income from the forest resources recorded for the Koinardih village due primarily to huge collection from the edible forest mushrooms only.

Key words: Forest resources; seasonal availability; livelihood; edible forest mushroom.