Medicinal plant research to get boost
The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Union Ministry of AYUSH, has selected Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Nauni in Solan district to establish and operate a Regional-cum-Facilitation Centre for Northern Region-I after a nationwide competitive selection process. The university’s proposal was presented before the NMPB Expert Committee in New Delhi, highlighting its research infrastructure, technical expertise and extensive work in medicinal and aromatic plants.
The Regional-cum-Facilitation Centre, earlier housed at the Research Institute of Indian System of Medicine, Jogindernagar in Mandi district, has now been entrusted to the Nauni university. This centre will coordinate NMPB programmes across New Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
The centre will function as a regional hub for the conservation, cultivation, processing, value addition, research and marketing of medicinal plants while also facilitating technology dissemination, capacity building, promotion of good agricultural practices and good field collection practices. It will also aid in project development, documentation and policy support to strengthen the medicinal plants sector in northern India.
Vice-Chancellor Prof HS Baweja says that the selection of the university for the Regional-cum-Facilitation Centre is a matter of pride and reflects its commitment to advancing research, innovation and farmer-centric development in medicinal plants. He adds that the facilitation centre will strengthen collaboration among researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, industries and government agencies.
The state biodiversity board has identified 60 medicinal species, which are facing various categories of threat, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with 12 of them having been assessed as critically endangered that face an extremely high risk of extinction.
Besides, 21 among them have been categorised as endangered and face a very high risk of becoming extinct in the wild owing to various factors like habitat loss, climate change and human activities, including their over-exploitation. Also, 27 of them fall in the vulnerable category and face the risk of disappearing in the state.
Research and conservation activities for these species will receive a major boost with this centre.
The university secured the prestigious assignment after a team led by Dr Devina Vaidya, Director of Research, along with Dr Rohit Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Products, serving as coordinator, and Dr Pankaj Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, as co-coordinator, submitted the proposal.
