Haryana govt's ambitious programme of herbal parks

Sirsa, May 8 (UNI) To encourage farmers towards the crop diversification programme undertaken by the Haryana government,the states Forest Department has developed the eigth herbal park on 15 acres of land at Foolkan village in the district.

A spokesman of the department here today said more than two lakh herbal plants have been planted in this park so far.The plants include harad, baheda, aavla, kaunch, tulsi and ashwagandha.

The land for the herbal park has been provided by the village panchayat.

The state government had provided Rs 3.5 crores for the eight herbal parks. The herbal parks concept is a part of the government's ambitious programme to diversify from wheat and paddy towards herbs so as to make Haryana a herbal state.

This park has been named as Baheda Vatika as maximum numbers of plants belong to the Baheda variety. All the eight herbal parks have been named after different herbs so that farmers can understand the importance of these herbs.

Besides providing information about the growing of herbs, the parks would be developed as tourist destinations, The spokesman added.

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