THE MEDICINAL HERBS PLANTATION, Before the current programmes that the government has come up with for the plantation of these medicinal herbs, the AYUSH ministry has been working towards the plantation of these trees and herbs to counter the anthropogenic pressure that deforestation and other activities create. Therefore, since the year 2014-15 the Ministry of AYUSH has been planting these trees under the “National Mission on Medical Plants” which is now the “National AYUSH mission”. This is centrally sponsored and is being implemented by the State Government designated agencies. This programme was launched by the government during the XII Plan period. The objective of the government and the National Medicinal Plant Board is to encourage the cultivation of medicinal plants and through this contribute to the sustainable growth and survival of these plants through which the entire country’s effect on the environment will be reduced.
In a report by the National Medicinal Plants Board in 2017 about their progress and the road to be taken ahead, they have mentioned that they were going to undertake a 365-day medicinal plants awareness programme in the year 2018 in the states to increase awareness among the people about the benefits of these. According to another report, in 2017, the Indian herbal market was worth 13470 Crores and it is expected to grow 19 per cent in 2 years. However, to achieve these numbers and meet the medicinal markets, there need to be scientific collection methods for the country. There has been a lot of effort taken towards this and has helped the country grow in this market.
So far, in Andhra Pradesh, the land covered by medicinal plants has increased dramatically in 2016. The clusters of these plants have increased from 65 to 195 and the land under medicinal herbs and plants increased from 7200 to 9099 hectares. Moreover, they also included new herbs like Sandalwood, red sanders apart from Ashwagandha and Piplamul.
In the Northern state of Himachal Pradesh, there are Ayurvedic centres and the state planted 42000 medicinal plants and various training programmes were also conducted as part of the awareness programme.
In Uttarakhand, awareness was raised through NGOs and the 365 days campaign. Also, efforts were made for establishing schools and home herbal gardens.
In Meghalaya, the agencies responsible have set up 2 model nurseries and 2 small nurseries at the West Khasi Hills and the Garo hills. In the state of Telangana, medicinal plants like Aloe Vera, Ashwagandha, Guggul, etc have been cultivated in a total of 721 acres. The AYUSH ministry was also a part of setting up the N-Ayush Medicinal Plants Germplasm Conservation cum Healing Centre in Hyderabad which has further promoted the cultivation of medicinal herbs.
Although many states have done a lot towards the goal of sustainable cultivation of these medicinal herbs, many states have not taken as many efforts and hence need to start making certain changes to their approach. States like Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland have not cultivated these plants to the expected levels. The ministry and the states bodies must make sure that a reasonable level of diligence is taken in the implementation of the programme and that the goals of AYUSH ministry are achieved.
Aayush Khandekar
(Volunteer)
