Conservation of endangered medicinal plants The Government is not neglecting the endangered species of medicinal plants. To look into all matters related to medicinal plants, the Government of India has set up National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under Department of AYUSH (now Ministry of AYUSH) in year 2000. Since its inception NMPB is working towards conservation and development of medicinal plants along with promotion of medicinal plants cultivation on farmers land to meet the ever increasing demand. Presently, the NMPB, Ministry of AYUSH is implementing the following two schemes for overall development of medicinal plants sector in the country: 1. Central Sector Scheme for Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants 2. Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission (NAM) Under the Central Sector Scheme, conservation of medicinal plants is being carried out mainly through in-situ conservation by way of plantation/ resource augmentation of species in their natural habitat and establishing Medicinal Plants Conservation and Development Areas (MPCDAs) etc., and through ex-situ conservation by developing herbal gardens. In order to reduce the pressure on wild population of medicinal plants species, the Ministry of AYUSH under the NAM scheme is promoting large scale cultivation of medicinal plants on farmers land and in this regard provides financial assistance as subsidy @ 30%, 50% and 75% of cost of cultivation to farmers for cultivation of medicinal plants including endangered species. As per Botanical Survey of India (BSI), out of 8,000 medicinal plants only 53 species are under threatened categories like Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, etc. This information was given by the Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Health & Family Welfare, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
