If immediate steps are not taken, India will be losing the opportunity to become a major source for herbal medicine and its raw material.
Though India's conservation work could easily be the largest and the most active in any developing country, it lacks policy support. Some 700 plant species are tapped regularly, in particular by the Rs. 1,500-crore ayurveda industry. Well-meaning regulatory efforts by the government, including a negative list of exports in endangered herbal products made in 1994, have failed to get off the mark.
Health Ministry's department of Indigenous Systems of Medicine have suggested regulatory measures to prevent wanton bio-piracy of herbs from the wild. These include captive cultivation by the user industry, community participation in collection, marketing and profit-sharing of the plants and their parts.
Another suggestion pending with the Government was the setting up of a medicinal plants conservation board funded by external agencies and the industry to finance family-level enterprises in farming, collection and scientific storage.
A global conference, held in Bangalore in India early this year looked into issues related to framing international guidelines for the conservation and non-destructive use of medicinal plants. Last similar attempt was ten years back, the Thai conference hosted by the World Conservation Organization (IUCN), WHO and others.
Policy-makers, conservation experts from India and the IUCN, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Central and State Ministries of Health and Environment and Forests, along with representatives of herbal plant dependent pharmaceutical industry participated in the four- day meet. The meet looked into issues like viable commercial use of medicinal plants by involving user industries, benefit sharing and sale of traditional intellectual property rights of local communities.
The indigenous systems of medicines, viz., ayurveda, siddha, unani and homeopathy are dependent on medicinal plants. Currently, there are about 46,000 licensed pharmacies in the Indian system of medicine practiced by over four lakh practitioners.
UNDP, the Ford Foundation and the Indian herbal medicine industry are being roped in to promote a medicinal plants consortium that is meant to take care of both conservation of medicinal herbs and the Rs. 2,200-crore herbal drugs business.
The Ford Foundation has agreed to finance a feasibility study to be taken up by a consensually chosen consultant. A medium-sized project funded by the UNDP - World Bank promoted body - the Global Environment Facility - is also being considered.
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