in the very first instance in India of tribals getting intellectual property right (ipr), the Kani tribe in the agastyar hills in south Kerala has been awarded Rs 5 lakh for an anti-fatigue drug they have been making from a local herb. The scientific name of the herb is Trichopus zeylanicus . The Kanis are also getting a part of the royalty on the sale of the drug being marketed under the name 'Jeevani'. The herb was detected by the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (tbgri), Thiruvananthapuram, in 1987. "We never thought that the tbgri was serious when it said it would give us what they called ipr," said Mallan Kani, a tribal leader from Chonanpara area.
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