Indian region is one of the greatest Emporia of ethno-biological wealth and a store house of traditional knowledge. The time tested traditional knowledge among the tribes has percolated from generation to generation through oral folk lore. The profound traditional knowledge on resource use and their conservation by the ethnic tribes provide modern scientists with unparalleled opportunities for research and product development. Although the heritage of Indian medicinal plants is very ancient and goes back to the Vedic times, there are several problems in equating local names in ancient literature with scientific names. A few such botanical riddles are discussed. The Himalayan region is said to be a real store house of may reputed „Sanjivani–like‟ medicinal plants such as Aconitum heterophyllum, Valeriana spp., A. falconeri, Arnebiabenthamii, Dactylorhizahatagirea, Gymnadeniaorchioides, Megacarpaeapolyandra, Picrorhizakurrooa, NardostachysjatamansiPodophyllumhexandrum and Taxuswallichiana and Rheum emodi which are used by many ethnic tribes in the region and have great potential for drug development. Use of a number of diverse, unrelated medicinal plant species for a particular ailment by different ethnic tribes in India is another major issue observed with regard to the use of traditional medicinal plants. The same is observed even in authoritative treatises like Charka samhita. The author stresses the need for Short listing and prioritizing the leads for a specific ailment by cris-crossing of information through cross-cultural studies among different ethnic tribes within a country and then compare with other developing countries in the region for intense bio prospecting and product development. The author elaborating on this issue calls for collaborative research programmes aiming at drug development by all developing countries having rich heritage of ethnic knowledge within the framework of the Rio Convention. Use of a particular species for the same ailment by different unrelated ethnic groups certainly indicates the efficacy and potential of these plants for drug development. However, shortage of field botanists / ethno botanists / taxonomists, lack of adequate financial support for ethno botanical investigations involving cross cultural studies, lack of much needed co-operation between biotechnologists and ethno botanists in Bio-prospecting programmes on ethno botanical leads, lack of comprehensive ethno botanical databases among biodiversity rich I ISBN: 978-81-932966-1-5 GSPSC – 2017 January 30th-February 1st, 2017 Volume I, Issue VI Page | 35 GSPSC – 2017 www.bioleagues.com developing nations for comparative ethno botanical study are shown to be some of the major constraints in this direction. Future responsibilities for Ethno biologists must includeinventorying the traditionally used biological resources and development of data bases(for purposes of sharing royalties if any) conservation and revitalization of the traditional cultures, safeguarding the traditional knowledge against misuse or over use by „modern societies‟, acting as custodians of the traditional knowledge and on behalf of the ethnic tribes decide and distribute the benefits that may accrue for their traditional knowledge(again as per the guidelines of Rio convention), and finally identify the knowledgeable resource persons in each region for providing some subsidy for pursuing their unique profession. What we can provide to the ethnic tribes and not what we can extract from them should be the target of all ethno biologists in the 21st century.