The Plantation Drive, AYUSH mantralaya is involved in a lot of individual plantation drives through which it promotes the plantation and usage of immunity-boosting medicinal herbs. The AYUSH mantralaya has recommended many herbs and plants like jamun, Neem, Tulsi, etc to be planted not only in these drives which might be helpful for the immunity of a person having deficiencies of the nutrients that this offer but also has encouraged people to grow these plants in their own homes and increase the impact of this drive.
The Delhi government had actually decided to launch a mega plantation drive on World Environment Day to bring down the pollution in the city. The city’s environmental minister Gopal Rai had said that the government will plant 33 lakh saplings a year starting June 5 throughout the city’s nurseries which the people will be able to take home free of cost to boost their immunity. The plants that have been included in this drive by the government are amla, guava, arjun, jamun, neem, tulsi, giloy, aloe vera, curry leaves, etc. This plantation drive, as said has been started n June 5 of this year and people have started taking home the medicinal herbs for consumption. Given the condition of COVID in the city, this was a great initiative to help people with deficiencies of the nutrients to increase their immunity.
However, the main plantation drive of these immunity-boosting medicinal herbs was in UP. CM Yogi Adityanath has decided to plant more trees and herbs that are rich in nutrients under the Plantation Jan Andolan this year. This particular project is going to be started on the 16th of July in UP and the government has an aim to plant 30 crore total trees in this monsoon season. This has been taken up by the National Medicinal Plant’s Board, which is under the AYUSH ministry and is going to overlook this plantation drive. In this drive, the goal is to plant these trees in the aanganwadi centers in the state. This is so that the economically weaker section who cannot afford the expensive immunity boosters or medicines can use these herbs. In this drive, the state is planning on planting aonla, khajur, jamun, anar, bel, papaya, agast, gambhaari, etc. According to the forest department, 18 species of saplings like Dahujan, Amaltas, etc will be planted.
Last year, Sahjan trees were planted near the slums so that the people could use them, however, as to the status of this drive, it is yet to start at the time of writing this (25th June). As to the responsibility, 10 Crore plants will be planted by the forest department and 20 Crore will be planted by other departments. As to the progress made through the plantation drives so far, 42.17 Crore total saplings has been planted by the Forest department so far. Moreover, a total of 60 Crore plants of different species have been planted in the drives of the previous years.
Aayush Khandekar
(Volunteer)
