National Medicinal Plants Board has now sanctioned over Rs. 2 crore to the Karnataka Medicinal Plants Authority (KaMPA) for its innovative project on assessment of bio-resources with special reference to medicinal plants before the end of this fiscal. The extensive exercise is to facilitate information of the species at the click of a button besides encouraging the traditional folklore medicinal practitioners in an age of holistic care where allopathy can be blended with Indian traditional medicinal systems.

Government and private Ayurveda college along research institutes like the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru and the National Ayurveda Dietetics Research Institute in Bengaluru the Central Council of Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, government of India.

“This is a first of its kind initiative to create a database on the quantum of species and those with medicinal plant value that can be consumed. There is also a rare endangered threatened (RET) category found in the forest areas. Karnataka is now taking the lead in this mammoth task. There is need to keep a tab on this bio-resource wealth,” Dr UV Singh, chief executive officer and additional principal chief conservator of forests, Karnataka Medicinal Plants Authority told Pharmabiz.

The project is a team effort of KaMPA which is the key organisation to provide the technical support and will be assisted by the Karnataka forest department that will provide the personnel and facilitate the audit of medicinal plants along with the Karnataka Biodiversity Board. A number of experts from government centres like botanists, taxonomists, agro forestry are roped in not just from metros but small towns including Sirsi, and Madikere.

In fact it was KaMPA which put forth a request for the implementation of a  project to NMPB because it found that assessment of the bio-resources was core to the creation of any strategy document or policy on medicinal plants. The data ensuring from this would be enormous and it would provide us significant information about the wealth of medicinal plants. The key objective is to ensure its conservation and sustainability, he added.

“We have already assessed four divisions including Honnavar and Haliyal in Uttara Kannada, Virajpet in Kodagu district. This month we would be evaluating the Bengaluru urban district. The effort is to cover 30 districts of the state by the end of this fiscal. In fact, we need the right human resources to undertake the evaluation”,  said Dr Singh.

The massive project would face immense challenges in the Western Ghats bordering districts of Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shimoga, Mysore, Chamrajanagar to name a few during the monsoon months spanning from June to September. “However, we expect to complete the assessments in those districts of the eastern forest zones from Bengaluru to Bidar district during this period”, he said.

Karnataka accounts for 2,000 species of medicinal plants and 400 are utilised by the traditional folklore medicine practitioners. Less than 100 species are utilized by the herbal industry. The state accounts for 2,300 beats of forest land. Each beat spans an area of 1,000 hectares. Therefore the total forest area is 2,300,000 hectares, he said.