The research scholars, physicians and students at the Survey of Medicinal Plants Unit (SMPU) of the CCRAS (Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha) of Ayush, are up in arms against the shifting of the decades old institute to Mettur herbal garden. The SMPU is presently located at the Government Siddha Medical College, Tirunelveli.

Besides the SMPU, the Ayush department has also ordered the shifting of Clinical Research Unit-Siddha, located on the College premises, to a private university in Thanjavur, people associated with the 'Save SMPU' (a forum of Tirunelveli based Siddha physicians, research scholars and students) said.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr Joseph Thas, former HoD of Pharmacology, Government Siddha College, said that there is no adequate infrastructure facility for accommodating the Survey of Medicinal Plants Unit in Mettur herbal garden. If the unit is shifted to there, it will completely destroy the fruits of nearly four decades of hard work put in by the scholars, Siddha students and practitioners. Likewise, he said, if the Clinical Research Unit is to be shifted to the Thanjavur based private university, it cannot work there as it requires a full-fledged Siddha hospital, which the University lacks.

Annoyed over the government decision, the Save SMPU has given a memorandum to the newly elected Member of Parliament from the district, S Rama Subbu, asking him to take up the matter with the new government at the centre to stop shifting of the two units.

According to Dr Thas, who is also the president of Friends of Siddha, an organisation of Siddha Physicians in southern Tamil Nadu, just before the general election, the ISM directorate in the Union health ministry had taken a decision to shift these two institutes from the present location. The SMPU is to be shifted to Mettur herbal garden and the CRU to a private university in Thanjavur.

Opposing the move, Friends of Siddha, with the support of the public, have sent an SoS to the Union government urging to save the SMPU and the CRU from being moved out of Tirunelveli. He said a group of officials in the union health ministry is aggressively making attempts to hand over the units to private groups. He further said, earlier also there was a move from the CCRAS to shift the units, functioning both at Palayamkottai, to the Regional Research Institute- Ayurveda, in Bangalore. But the timely intervention of Dr Thas' association could save them from moving away from Tirunelveli in 1999.

Dr Thas said that the SMPU has over 2300 species of therapeutic flora including over 1000 species from the Western Ghats, thanks to the four decades' efforts and exertions made by research scholars associated with the SMPU in the forests of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep.