New Delhi: The Union government had set up a National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under the Department of AYUSH (now Ministry of AYUSH) in the year 2000 to look into all matters related to medicinal plants. Since its inception, the NMPB has been working towards conservation and development of medicinal plants along with promotion of medicinal plants cultivation on farmers’ land to meet the ever increasing demand.
Presently, the NMPB, Ministry of AYUSH is implementing the following two schemes for overall development of medicinal plants sector in the country: the central sector scheme for conservation, development and sustainable management of medicinal plants and the centrally sponsored scheme of National AYUSH Mission (NAM).
Under the central sector scheme, conservation of medicinal plants is being carried out mainly through in-situ (on-site) conservation by way of plantation and resource augmentation of species in their natural habitat and establishing medicinal plants conservation and development areas (MPCDAs) etc, and through ex-situ (off-site) conservation by developing herbal gardens.
In order to reduce the pressure on wild population of medicinal plants species, the Ministry of AYUSH under the NAM scheme is promoting large-scale cultivation of medicinal plants on farmers’ land and in this regard provides financial assistance as subsidy at the rate of 30%, 50% and 75% of cost of cultivation to farmers for cultivation of medicinal plants including endangered species.
As per the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), out of 8,000 medicinal plants in the country, only 53 species are under threatened categories like critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, etc.
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