India to import medicinal herbs from Bhutan on depleting stocks

SILIGURI: India, considered a goldmine for medicinal plants, is going to import herbs from its neighbour Bhutan, another treasure trove for medicinal herbs. Ironically, India’s own natural stock is fast depleting due to lack of conservation.

According to S Chewang, chief marketing officer of the agricultural marketing services of Bhutan, some Indian companies have already placed orders to buy medicinal plants like chirata, pipla (piper longum) and tsoe (rubia cordifolia).

Initially, the country is expecting an export volume of over 15 metric tonne each of the plants.
However, India, despite having its own varieties of herbs, is heading towards an uncertain scenario, feel experts. With an annual 20% growth, the present Indian medicinal plant business volume is over Rs 4,500 crore.

“But due to excessive and unscientific harvesting, a large number of medicinal plant species are under threat,” said MA Haque, director, ministry of environment and forests. According to Mr Haque, of the available 15,000 species, around 8,000 are in use.

While nearly 1,700 are for ayurvedic usage, 1,100 are for siddha, over 750 in unani and near 300 are in amchi or Tibetan school for treatments. But, just 800-900 are in trade records. Out of those, about 700 are harvested in large quantities from forests. Common examples are sena, amla, asoka, harra, gulancha, khas, ashwagandha and sarpgandha.

Undoubtedly, replenishment of the harvested plantation remains a big question. “Without planned harvesting and replantation, India would soon be dependent on others after losing its own treasure,” said ayurvedshastri RK Chakrovorty.

As a matter of fact, according to Inscriptions India survey, India’s Green Protection Index (GPI) figure is just 0.425 on a scale of 0 to 1. GPI is an indicator of the initiative of the government to protect its green wealth.

The list of Indian medicinal plants under threat is quite long. It includes acorus calamus (vacha), coscinium fenestratum (jhar-haldi), gloriosa superba (karihari), janakia arayalpathra (amruthapala), champa, pipli, sarapgandha, asoka and arjun. A major Indian species plectranthus vettiveroide (valak) is already extinct from the wild.