Plant extinction threatens traditional medicine systems

The medicinal plant collection and traditional medicine sector in India is under threat, from illegal collection and depletion of forest resources.

The Rs 4,000 crore market for traditional systems of medicine, dependent largely on medicinal plants, was growing at 20 per cent annually but would be derailed by these threats.

The ayurveda market worth around Rs 3,500 crore was also growing at 20 per cent annually but faced a similar disaster, according to a study conducted by a consortium of south Asian non-government organisations (NGOs) called South Asian Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment (SAWTEE), the National Medicinal Plant Board under the central ministry of health and family welfare, and Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).

The special focus of the study were four states of the central and north eastern region of the eastern Himalayas - Uttaranchal, Arunachal Pradesh with over 500 species of medicinal plants, Himachal Pradesh with with 3000 plant species), and Meghalaya, another storehouse of medicinal plants in the country.

Most medicinal plants grew in the wild and in the four surveyed states, up to 90 per cent material was sourced from the wild.

But these were being illegally collected by hiring the local mountain tribes and communities at daily wages of Rs 70 or less for onward sale in wholesale markets.

Even endangered and banned plant varieties were not spared, explained Alam.

Khari Baola in New Delhi had emerged as the major wholesale market in the northern region for Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, while Kolkata handled plants collected from north-eastern India, added Alam.

The collectors were usually daily wage earners or farmers with small land holdings dependent on local contractors for loans and exposed to exploitation.

State governments like Uttaranchal were attempting to counter the menace of contractors through collection contracts issues only to village community organisation called 'samoohs'.

To check powerful local contractors in 'bhaishaj sangh' or medicinal plant cooperatives, forest departments have been granted greater power over collection and marketing procedures in states like Uttaranchal.

The government was also trying to promote legal cultivation but factors like high economic risk and inadequate technology for cultivation of such plants on a large scale were hampering the process.

In states like Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in roder to prevent excessive collection from the wild, the government has introduced concrete policies to promote cultivation which includes schemes to train farmers for cultivation projects which are being done in tandem with non government organisations.

Medicinal plants could only be harvested after three years and most farmers felt that prices were uncertain and too low to justify the effort.

A comparative analysis done by the National Medicinal Plant Board between potato, rajma and the medicial plant 'kutki' demonstrated that 'kutki' cultivation was more profitable in the long run.

Cost of cultivation of potato was Rs 32,400 with a net calculated profit of Rs 12,600, while rajma cost Rs 9,675 to grow and yielded profit of Rs 5,325, but 'kutki' cost Rs 22,216 to rear and yielded profit of Rs 88,284.

National as well as state level research institutes are working for the promotion of medicinal plants in the Himalayan foothill regions.

Species being promoted for cultivation include cinchona ledgeriana or quinine, sarpagandha or rauvolfia serpentia in Meghalaya and acontium heterophyllum or atis, coptis teeta or mamira, picrorhiza kurrooa or kutki in Arunachal Pradesh.

India's export of medicinal and herbal plants, which stood at Rs 446 crore in 2000, was expected to reach Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal, the National Medicinal Plant Board said in the study.

All this was at risk because of lack of good practices.

Over 1.5 million practitioners of the Indian systems of medicine in the oral and codified streams use medicinal plants for preventive and curative applications, noted Ghayur Alam, director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Mussorie.

About 5 crore people rely on non timber forest products (NTFP), the majority of which were medicinal plants.

Collection and processing of medicinal plants contributed to at least 35 million work days of employment annually according to the survey.