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Near-extinct medicinal herbs being revived in Kangra

     Kangra (Himachal Pradesh): In a noble effort to revive old herbal remedies, the Kangra Herbs Society has started a processing unit to make medicated formulations from thousands of different herbs. The Metti-based society has founded a research center named the Herbs Antique Research Botanical (HARB), which has been carrying out active researches in primitive medicines. The research center is also working continuously to revive the relevance of these herbs to cure several deadly diseases. Botanists, Ayurveda Acharyas, food specialists, cosmetologists, chemists and farmers, chemists, engineers, food specialists and cosmetologists are all part of the research that is done under the HARB. "First we started contacting the folklore people. They started telling us few tips that this herb is good at this and this herb is good at this. We then gathered knowledge about, say, 50 herbs. Then we invited few of the known scientists from the world over. And then it was confirmed that these were the same herbs, which we used to talk about, because they are almost on the verge of extinction. Once they confirmed that, we went for cultivation programme," said H S Guleria, Director, Kangra Herbs Society. The society also encouraged the locals to grow herbs giving them buyback guarantee. Volunteers of the HARB also train local farmers in techniques of cultivating herbs, and many have now diversified from food crops to growing herbs.
-June 14, 2009