Conservation Action

In-situ Conservation
The In Situ conservation of medicinal plants relates to the conservation of wild population of medicinal plant populations in their natural habitats. Conservation of plants in their natural habitats is important as it is the most cost-effective way of maintaining their gene pools while retaining their full natural evolutionary potential.

In-situ conservation of medicinal plants is especially important as their natural habitats have been getting destroyed, modified, shrunk or degraded due to various biotic and environmental factors, and the plant species residing in these habitats, including medicinal plants, face threats to their survival. If the estimated rate of global threat of extinction i.e. 27,000 species (flora and fauna) per year (Wilson, 1995) continues, then a large proportion of our plant species would go extinct in the next three generations. Extinction is an irreplaceable loss. The extinction of medicinal plants means not only the loss of valuable plants that can save lives, but also of local cultures associated with their use.

With the large number of India's medicinal plant species known to be distributed across diverse ecosystems, there is urgent need to initiate conservation, in all bio-geographic regions of the country.

Novel conservation strategy

The conservation group has been co-ordinating since 1993, the country's first medicinal plant conservation programme, which has been implemented by the state forest departments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. This in situ conservation initiative has resulted in the setting up of a network of 55 Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas (MPCA) across different forest types and altitude zones in these five states of peninsular India.

A significant feature of this medicinal plant conservation program has been conservation-with-community-participation. The most important purpose of this network of MPCAs is that it serves as the gene bank of medicinal plant resources of the region.

The network of MPCAs captures the inter and intra specific medicinal plant diversity of peninsular India.

The criteria for the selection of the 54 Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas are:

• Representation of forest types of the region
• Areas traditionally well known for medicinal plant wealth
• Areas with known high level of endemism
• Areas located across the altitude range
• Sites that are accessible for long-term study

Decalepis hamiltonii

The MPCAs capture around 2000 medicinal plant species, which represent 50% of the medicinal plant diversity of the five states, and significantly includes over 75% of the RED Listed Species of these states. For all the MPCA sites, detailed floristic studies on medicinal plant diversity including the threatened, traded and endemic plants have been undertaken.

Key role of local communities
Forest departments engage with local communities for the protection and management of MPCAs and various kinds of community benefit activities have been introduced. These activities are outlined below:

Outreach Nursery
The nursery outreach activity emphasises raising seedlings of medicinal value for the use of local communities, inclusive of Nativaidyas and Women for their primary health care needs. It is also used to supply seedlings to local educational institutions and community herbal gardens. Several dozen species of medicinal plants are being raised in these nurseries

Conservation Education
Conservation Education activities involving local guides have been undertaken to create public awareness on the need for conserving wild populations of the medicinal plant diversity. The target groups include students, tourists, pilgrims and the general public. Demonstration Gardens highlighting important medicinal plants, nature trails to provide a feel of the forests harbouring the medicinal plant and interpretation centres based on thematic presentations on medicinal plants have been established in several MPCAs. The training of local resource persons to act as guides is undertaken.
 

Health Education & Income generation
Women's Self-Help Groups receive training in self-help use of plants for primary health care. Revenue generating activities related to manufacture and sale of herbal products have also been initiated.

JFM oriented medicinal plants program in degraded forests
There are 12 degraded forest areas located in Tamilnadu and Karnataka where eco restoration of medicinalplants in degraded forests has been initiated through planting native medicinal plants species. The local community is involved in planting, maintenance and harvesting the produce; and in value addition wherever feasible. Some examples of sites where these activities have been carried out are: Chengalpet and Dodabetta in Tamilnadu, Savanadurga, Sidderabetta and Rayalpadu in Karnataka.

Examples of specific activities Doddabetta has an area of 30 Ha , wherein aromatic plants are grown, oils distilled, packaged and sold in addition to sale of nursery seedlings. It supports 45 families throughout the year. The net revenue generated is to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakhs per year. The MPDAs of Savanadurga, Sidderabetta and Rayalpadu are active in producing value added products of medicinal value and have started generating income, though on a small scale. In addition, in the existing JFM areas of Tamilnadu, 6 MPDA sites were chosen in '99-2000 - these were developed by planting activities mainly relating to the supply for the propagation requirements of these sites for future use, planting of selected medicinal plants in areas ranging from 2 to 5 Ha, and also involving the local communities for raising medicinal plants for the first time in these areas. The Salem MPDA has supplied propagation material for Tamil Nadu Forest Plantation Corporation for its planting activites. The development of Pilleri MPDA in Chengalpet where, in an area of about 25 Ha , the Tamil Nadu Forest department, has developed the area for demonstrating the cultivation practice of 17 species of herbs, shrubs, climbers and trees of economic value . Significantly, the buy back arrangements have also been ensured for the produce. This will help in equipping the Forest Department and the community in demonstrating the package of practices and also serve as the source of supply of propagation materials of these species to both the Forest Department for its planting programs,the farmers as well as other user groups. This site is also popular with the public.

Community gardens in districts, talukas and towns via local institutions
A network of 18 regional ethono-botanical gardens have been established across southern India in order to conserve the medicinal plant species known to various ethnic communities of the region. The size of the garden ranges from 6-25 acres and the gardens are managed by NGOs. They are located in different agro climatic / bioclimatic regions of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The NGOs carried out ethno-medicinal surveys and they have established a regional Herbarium, Seed and Raw-Drug centre. These gardens impart education and training to different users such as farmers, schools, colleges, folk healers and self help woman groups.

Propagation techniques
A research study has been initiated for development of suitable techniques to propagate some highly-traded medicinal plants. This study, undertaken in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Madurai, has now targeted five highly traded species: Barringtonia autangula, Curuligo orchioides, Desmodium gangenticum, Spilanthes acmella and Wedeilia chinesis.

Community registers
An exercise of comprehensive documentation and participatory rapid assessment of local health traditions was undertaken to identify, recognise and promote effective practices with communities participation.

The output of this documentation serves as a register on the health practices of the study areas.

↓ Highlights ↓