Forest play a vital role for the continuation of ecological, biological and environmental balance and also forest has a unique role in the socio – economic existence of the people of India (Quang, 2006). As per World Bank indicator, the total geographical area of world under forest was 39,991,336 sq km which is 30.716 percent of total geographical area. About 1.6 billon people of the world depend on forests for livelihood (FAO, 2015). India is the seventh largest country in the world though it owns 1.8% of the global forests on the 2.5% of the global land area. In India, it was reported that 706,820 sq km (23.83%) of the area is under forests (World Bank indictor, 2016). Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state is having 20,230 sq km of the forest area which is around 20 percent of its geographical area. In Jammu region, Kashmir region and Ladakh region it was reported to be 12000 sq km, 8128 sq km and 36 sq km respectively (DES, 2013-14). The main tree species abundantly wild grown in sub tropical region with paramount NTFP importance are Acacia catechu, Acacia nilotica (L.) Wild ex Del. (Kikar/ Ferlai), Aegle marmelos L. Corr. Serr (Bael), Carissa spinarum L. (Garna), Cordia dichotoma var. wallichii (Lasura), Ficus palmate Forsk. syn. F. virganta roxb (Fakhana/Fakuaara/Fakura), Flacourtia indica (Burm.f.) Merr (Kakoa), Ficus roxburghii Wall (Trimbal/ Rumbel), Ziziphus xylopyrus (Retz.) Willd. (Keth Ber), Ziziphus nummularia (Burm. f.) Wight & Walk.-Arn. In intermediate zone Pinus roxburghii Roxb.ex Lamb., olive, Pyrus pashia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don etc are found. The temperate region comprises of Cedrus deodara, Juglans regia, Pinus gerardiana etc are of crucial economic importance from NTFP point of view (Slathia and Paul 2012). Some important non- timber forest products (NTFP) available in J&K are Saussuria costus (Falc) Lipsch (Kuth), Berberis lyceum Royle (Rasount), Viola canescence (Bunafsha), wild apriot, Dioscorea deltoidea (Kins), Aloe vera Tourn. Ex Linn.(Aloe), Morchella esculenta L. (Gucchi) etc. The people living in the vicinity of the forest collect the NFTPs for their livelihood sustainability as an off- farm income for them. It has already been reported in different studies that characteristics of farming community play a crucial role in adoption of different recommended production technologies. It has already been reported in different studies that gender, age, education level, social participation, farm implement possession, land holding, type of family, marital status (Minj and Quli 2000; McElwee 2008; Rodrigez, 2007; Bullock et al., 2003; Raufu et al., 2012; Sharma, 2015) significantly affect the farmers' decision to go foe collection of NTFPs. Keeping this point of view the present study entitled “Analysis of personal, socio-economic characteristics and information seeking pattern of non- timber forest produce (NTFP) collectors of Jammu Region of J&K” was undertaken. METHODOLOGY The present study was conducted in Jammu region. Multistage sampling plan was followed for drawl of ultimate sampling units. The East circle from Jammu region was purposively selected as it covers all the three agro- climatic zones namely Subtropical, Intermediate and Temperate, thus it represents the whole Jammu division. East forest circle comprises of seven forest divisions, out of these three forest divisions; Basholi, Ramnagar and Udhampur were selected by employing random selection procedure without replacement. From each randomly selected forest division, one forest range having maximum NTFP availability were selected. Thus Basantgarh, Dudu and Bani forest ranges from Ramnagar, Udhampur and Basholi forest divisions respectively. From Basantgarh and Dudu forest ranges one forest block each having maximum NTFP collection were selected. Whereas from Bani forest range, firstly one forest block was selected but due to non- availability of total ultimate sampling units, second ranked forest bock was also selected for data collection. The collectors and non collectors were the ultimate sampling units. The available collectors were contacted with the snow ball sampling procedure, from the each selected beat 50 collectors were selected, thereby making a total sample size of 150 collectors. Data were collected from the sampled respondent on the pre-tested interview schedule by contacting personally on their fields or at their homes. Analysis of collected data was performed using SPSS 16.0 (statistical package for social sciences) software. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The data presented in the Table 1 reveals that the overall average age in all the three forest divisions was 40.58 years (±12.14). Majority of collectors (49%) belong to middle age group (36-54 years) followed by 41 percent (18-36 years) young age group and 10 percent (54-86 years) old age group. This was supported by the results of Shivaprasad (2016) who also reported that majority (78%) of the NTFP collectors belong to the age group of 30-50 years. Similar results were reported by McElwee (2008) who found that the elderly people are less likely to collect NTFPs from the forest, hence they rely more on their agricultural farms because they may not have the strength to carry out forest-related activities, as it involves a body challenging trek to the upper reaches of the mountains, where NTFPs are mostly found.The overall average farming experience of collectors in all the three forest divisions was 22.62 years (±11.38). The overall average NTFP collection experience of collectors in all the three forest divisions was 17.19 years (±7.53). Dutt and Chole (2002) also reported similar results in their study. Data presented in Table 1 regarding type of house show that overall 75 percent of collectors had kacha house followed by 25 percent which had semi- kacha house while none of them had pacca house 67 percent of collectors had kisan credit card and 95 percent had MGNERGA card. With regards to ration card, 71 percent of collectors had PHH ration card while 29 percent had NPHH ration card. Overall 97 percent of the collectors had toilets in their homes. With regards to telephone connectivity, overall 97 percent of the NTFP collectors had mobile connectivity out of which 13 percent of them had smartphones. The overall percentage of the education of collectors in three forest divisions was 30 percent primary, 26 percent middle, 12 percent were matric, 7 percent were below primary, 5 percent 10+2 level and only one percent were graduate and above. Whereas 19 percent of the respondents were illiterate. The average formal education of collectors was highest in Ramnagar forest division 6.94 years (±4.2) followed by 6.48 years (±1.94) in Basohli and lowest was in Udhampur 4.80 years (±4.00). A close look at Table 2 indicates that the highest literacy rate of collectors’ household was found in Ramnagar forest division (79.20%) followed by Udhampur (70.43%) and least in Basohli (66.32%). The overall literacy rate of collectors was 71.72 per cent. Literacy index of household of the collectors in Ramnagar forest division was found to be 2.35, followed by 1.83 in Basohli and 1.82 in Udhampur. Literacy index of overall household of the collectors was 1.89. It was categorized into nuclear and joint family, in case of collectors in Ramnagar forest division 78 percent respondents had nuclear families followed by 64 percent in Udhampur and 38 percent in Basohli district. Overall 60 percent of the collectors lived in nuclear family, where rest lived in joint family. With regard to family size, the average family size of collectors in Basohli was 6.24 (±2.03) followed by 6 (±2.20) in Udhampur and 5.82 (±1.91) in Ramnagar forest division. The overall average family size of collectors in all the three forest divisions was 6.02 (±2.03). In case of collectors the number of females per thousand of males was 840, 782 and 731 in Udhampur, Basohli and Ramnagar forest divisions respectively. Overall for collectors there were 784 numbers of females per thousand of males. Data given in Table 4 revealed that in case of collectors average operational land holding in Ramnagar, Basohli and Udhampur forest divisions was 0.65, 0.44 and 0.55 hectares including unirrigated land holdings 0.65, 0.44 and 0.49 hectares respectively. Overall average operational land holding of collectors in the study area was 0.55 hectare with irrigated area of 0.02 hectare. In Ramnagar forest division 82 percent collectors were in the category of marginal farmers (<1ha) followed by 14percent small farmers (1-2ha), 12 percent semi-medium farmers (2-4ha) and two percent medium farmers (4-10ha). In Basohli forest division all the collectors were in the category of marginal farmers (<1ha). In Udhampur forest division 78per centcollectors were in the category of marginal farmers (<1ha) followed by 22 percent small farmers (1-2ha). With regards to overall collectors, 86 per centcollectors were in the category of marginal farmers (<1ha) followed by 12 percent small farmers (1-2ha) and equal percent (1%) fall in semi-medium (2-4ha) and medium category (4-10ha). The results presented in Table 5 revealed that, total family members size was 903, including 66 percent adult members and 38 percent were earning members with dependency ratio of 1:2.96. Out of 150 sampled households of collectors only three percent were solely dependent on NTFP income. Collector households having other sources of income including NTFP and Agriculture were 97 percent which includes labour (64%), private job (9%), labour + private job (9%), shop (6%), labour + government service (2%) and any other (3%). Data presented in Table 6 reflected the different source of information utilized by collectors and it was found that none of the collector was aware about NGOs. 98 percent of the respondents get information from NTFP contractors, while 84 percent get information from input dealers, 63 percent from progressive farmers, 89 percent from friends/ relatives, 98 from group meetings and 17 percent from kisanmela. Likewise for television, only 3 percent were getting agriculture/ NTFP related information. About trainings, only two percent were attended any training ever. None of the collectors were aware about Kissan Call Center. Categorization was done on the basis of level of source of utilization and it was found that 94 percent of collectors were under medium source utilization category (6-7 sources) and equal percent (3%) were fall under low (0-5 sources) and more utilization (above 7 sources) categories.