Need to promote medicinal plants grown by tribal people, says Oram
NEW DELHI: Stressing on promoting medicinal plants and its products, Union Minister Jual Oram on Thursday said that not much attention has been paid to the harnessing of “forest wealth” and there is a need to promote medicinal plants grown by tribal people to help them “achieve the true remuneration”.
The Union Tribal Affairs Minister made the remarks during the signing of an MOU between the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development of Federation of India (TRIFED), Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and the National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of Ayush, to promote “medicinal forest produce for livelihood development of tribal people”.
The MOU was signed in the presence of Ayush Minister Shripad Yesso Naik, who stressed on making available medicinal plants, herbs for manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines.
On the occasion, Oram said, “Till now, the focus had been on mining of minerals, be it iron ore, coal... which is non-renewable. But there is another wealth - minor forest produce - and not much attention has been paid to it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed on it. It is renewable and eco-friendly.”
“We used to sell around 20 kg of mahua (a tribal drink) for 25 paise. Today, if we consider the minimum support price, the same amount will cost Rs 150-200,” the minister said, underscoring the need for marketing of tribal products and medicinal plants grown by them.
The MOU would help in harnessing the forest wealth for the use of the society and getting foreign exchanges to the country by exporting herbal products overseas. Notably, the country has exported 92,059.21 tonnes of Ayush and herbal products with the price value of $354.68 million in the financial year 2014-15, which is set to increase after the MOU.
Commenting on the development, ayurvedic drug maker KK Sharma, who represents AIMIL Pharmaceuticals, said that the MOU would definitely help in resolving the issue of unavailability of quality raw materials for manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines and herbal products.
The ayurvedic drugs such as BGR-34, Lukoskin, etc, which are developed by CSIR and DRDO respectively, are proving a boon for the patients of diabetics and vitiligo or leucoderma.