Medicinal plants conservation and development areas (MPCDAs)-An initiative towards conservation of medicinal plants

Abstract

India is one of the hot spots of world's biodiversity having wealth of medicinal plants. Forests are the main habitat of Medicinal Plants and a large number of species are also endemic that gives India a unique position in the world. Medicinal plants form the major resource base of our traditional systems of medicine or AYUSH systems of medicines and folklore medicines. Even allopathic medicines also used plant based raw material for the preparation of medicine. However, due to various anthropogenic activities and unsustainable harvesting from wild, many medicinal plants species in India have become endangered and have been included in Red Data Book of threatened species. Thus, there is an urgent need to have measures taken to protect/conserve the natural habitats of these medicinal plants wealth of the Country. Some important medicinal Plants species of conservation concern in India are Aconitum heterophyllum (Atis), Aconitum atrox (Mitha), Bergenia ciliata (Pashan bhed), Commiphora wightii (Guglu), Dactylorhiza hatagirea (Salampanja), Nardostachys grandiflora (Jatamansi), Paris polyphylla (Satva), Picrorhiza kurrooa (Kutki), Podophyllum hexandrum (Bankakri), Rauvolfia serpentina (Sarpagandha), Rheum australe (Revand chini), Saraca asoaca (Ashok) etc. The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Government of India, in this regard, has taken initiatives to support in-situ conservation of medicinal plants through establishment of Medicinal Plants Conservation and Development Areas (MPCDAs) throughout the country. For in-situ conservation, the State Forest Departments are playing a vital role in establishing the MPCDAs, ensuring conservation of the Red Listed Medicinal Plants species along with associated flora. Considering the richness in diversity of medicinal plants in India, there is still a good scope for conservation of these resources in their natural habitats through establishment of MPCDAs throughout the country. In addition, considering the diversity of medicinal flora, the state forest department in collaboration with research institutions should come forward to carryout research and development studies on conservation as part of germplasm of endemic medicinal plants species and augment the medicinal plants biodiversity base in the country.