Dehradun: A meeting of the State-Level Monitoring Committee under the Forest Department’s “Development of Non-Timber Forest Produce and Herbal and Aroma Tourism Project” was held at the Secretariat on Wednesday, chaired by Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan. During the meeting, the Chief Secretary took detailed information about the progress of the project. He instructed the Forest Department to constitute a Project Management Committee (PMC) for this purpose soon.
The Chief Secretary said that medicinal herbs are Uttarakhand’s unique selling proposition (USP). He emphasized the need to link medicinal herbs to the state’s economy. He instructed the Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forest Departments to prepare an action plan for the production and marketing of medicinal herbs in coordination with each other. He also said that the budget is currently being prepared, and if a provision for this is needed in the budget, it will be included.
The Chief Secretary suggested developing herbal nurseries into herbal and aroma parks and linking them to tourism activities. He instructed that immediate action be taken to expand the nurseries in Devban, Khirsu, Jageshwar, Selakui, Munsiyari, and other places and develop them into herbal-aroma parks. He also instructed that a nursery plan be prepared soon.
The Chief Secretary also instructed the formation of a core group for the development of medicinal herbs. He said that this core group should include the Agriculture, Horticulture, Herbal Development and Research Institute, Aromatic Plants Centre, along with the Forest Department and Forest Corporation. He said that all these departments are working separately in the field of medicinal herbs. Now, they need to work in coordination with each other.
The Chief Secretary said that under the Development of Non-Timber Forest Produce and Herbal and Aroma Tourism Project, 10,000 farmers are to be trained. A training module should be prepared soon for this purpose. He instructed that the Aromatic Plants Centre be developed as the nodal agency for training. The Chief Secretary said that district-level monitoring committees should be formed and regular monitoring meetings held to ensure the success of the scheme. He emphasized the need to focus not only on medicinal plant production but also on marketing. He directed the departments to collaborate with Ayurvedic pharmaceutical companies and buyers to focus on production according to their requirements.
Present on the occasion were Principal Secretary R.K. Sudhanshu, Secretary Dr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, PCCF (HoFF) Ranjan Kumar Mishra, PCCF (Forest Panchayat) V.P. Gupta, Additional Secretaries Vijay Kumar Jogdande and Himanshu Khurana, and other senior officers.
