Chhattisgarh
Forest Department
NWFP
Certification
The
Chief Executive Officer of the National Medicinal Plants Board explained to the
august body some of the initiatives taken by the National Medicinal Plants
Board. Some of them are enumerated below:
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Organic cultivation of medicinal plants (10500 acres)
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Production of quality planting material (1.86 crore seedling)
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Interaction with stakeholders
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Identification of potential medicinal plants
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So far 363 projects have been sanctioned
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So far 26 State Medicinal Plants Boards have been constituted
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Liaison with international bodies
Dr.
Rawat concluded that certification must be done as per international protocols
and there should be quality control systems at every stage and the GAP, GCP and
GMP should be followed. All these practices will ultimately lead to an opening
gateway to international market.
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Presentation
by Mr. G.A. Kinhal (IFS),
Coordinator
GEF and other special projects, Foundation
for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bangalore.
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Mr. Kinhal made presentation titled "Regulatory Framework for Harvest and
Trade in Wild Species of Medicinal Plants: Principles, design and
Challenges". He told that the content aspect of harvesting is secondary,
but composition is of prime concern. Hence there should be regulation to ensure
that critically endangered species are not taken out from the forests without
proper measures for conservation and propagation of the soecies. He suggested
that certification shall proceed gradually from GMP based approach to GTP based
systems. The current system of regulation is negative in nature and hence it
undermines livelihood issues.
He
stated that around 90% of medicinal plants used by the Indian industries are
collected from the wild. More than 70% of plant collections involve removal of
plants for obtaining the parts. Currently 200 species of medicinal plants have
been assessed as rare, endangered and threatened.
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Mr.
Kinhal also pointed out towards the status of trade in medicinal plants.
According to him, 880 species of medicinal plants are in All India Trade, out of
which 88 species are from purely cultivated sources, 46 are imported and exotic
and 212 are collected both from wild and from limited cultivation. The rest (534
species) are sourced purely from wild.
Mr.
Kinhal posed the question of the necessity to regulate trade in medicinal
plants.
He
stated that regulations should ensure that –
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Critically endangered species are not harvested
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Over-harvesting is not done for permitted species
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Permitted species are harvested at the right stage of maturity
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Permitted species are harvested in a scientific and / or non-destructive
way
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Recommended post-harvest procedures are followed for permitted species to
avoid wastage and loss of produce.
He
stressed on the need for a positive regulatory regime to be instilled.
Mr.
Kinhal presented a diagrammatic detail of the current scenario in medicinal
plants sector.
