Ramdoss launches herbal garden scheme for students' awareness

New Delhi, Oct 11 (UNI) Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss today launched a scheme of setting up of herbal gardens in schools to create awareness among students about the rich heritage of medicinal plants in the country.

The garden was launched at the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan and 40 more such gardens would be established in Delhi. A contest would be held next year to judge the best garden.

Speaking on the occasion, he urged the students to take good care of the herbal garden. He said India had one of the richest and most diverse cultural heritage associated with the use of medicinal plants. ''Ayurveda and Siddha, which are 3000-5000 years old, in particular, have stood the test of time in providing preventive, promotive and curative health care to people and are therefore increasingly gaining worldwide attention and acceptance,'' he added.

He said looking back at the history of drug development, its evident that many modern medicines had envoled from traditional medicines and ethno-pharmacology. Numerous medicines had come out of Ayurveda. Plants like haldi, neem, sarpagandha, tulsi, ashwagandha were a few examples of this.

The National Medicinal Plants Board of Ministry of Health&Family Welfare is providing financial assistance at the rate of Rs 14,000/- per school which includes the maintenance cost. These herbal gardens are aimed at creation of awareness among the school children about the plants in their surroundings that have been used since time immemorial for promoting better health and for prevention of various ailments.

The scheme is being implemented throughout the country with active participation of State Medicinal Plant Boards. Herbal gardens are proposed to be set up in about 1000 schools all over the country on pilot basis. The scheme is being implemented in Delhi in 40 schools which include 30 Kendriya Vidyalas. Based on the response to the scheme and the experience, the coverage under the scheme will be enlarged.

On this occasion, Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi expressed the hope that through the scheme of school herbal gardens, students would be exposed to the immense uses which a large number of these plants can be put to. And it is not merely a folkloric remedy but something, which has been validated through various scientific researches, Mr Lakshmi noted.

UNI AJ K KP/ht1910