Cultivation of Medicinal Plants along the Banks of River Ganga

By PIB Delhi

For promoting cultivation of medicinal plants, the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India is implementing “Medicinal Plants” component under “Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission” (NAM) since 2015-16 throughout the country. As per the operational NAM scheme guidelines, the cultivation of medicinal plants is supported in different States based on the State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) submitted by concerned State and approved by the NAM Directorate of Ministry of AYUSH. Under NAM scheme, the Ministry of AYUSH has supported cultivation of medicinal plants in state of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal through which the river Ganga flows.

Apart from this, the Ministry of AYUSH under its “Central Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants” has also supported a project titled “Dissemination of Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) agrotechnology in flood-prone contaminated area of Ganga river of Uttar Pradesh” to Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow. Under the project Vetiver plantation has been done in catchment area of river Ganga in different location of Kanpur and Varanasi districts.

In addition, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti has also supported a project titled “Promotion of cultivation of medicinal plants on Ganga basin in Uttar Pradesh” to Uttar Pradesh Forest Department covering 10 districts of the state viz. Prayag Raj, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Chandauli and Ballia.

However, the Government has no such proposal to develop a five km. long green belt on the banks of river Ganga through cultivation of medicinal plants.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.