Paradise under fire
The beautiful Valley of Flowers, known for its flower diversity and fecundity, is caught in a strange controversy over ban on grazing
The secret gardens of Malabar
An English translation has been made exactly 300 years after the Hortus Malabricus was written, new, sinister designs seem to lurking behind it - …
Magical mushroom: Scaling up Ganoderma lucidum cultivation will benefit farmers, users
Ganoderma lucidum has over 400 chemical constituents with medicinal properties
Divine relish
Solanum torvum or the Turkey berry is known for its spiritual, medicinal and curative properties
Kagga in peril
This rice can tolerate brackish water but is on the brink of extinction. Can government save it?
Growing fences
Burgeoning population and agricultural encroachment in the last half century have erected artificial walls within the Gond tribes. These ethnic …
Bitter bounty: Why karela leaves can be a good harvest off your kitchen garden
Bitter gourd leaves not only have medicinal and nutritive properties, they can be added to tasty recipes as well
New database finds 960 new ‘druggable’ components in Indian medicinal plants
The database was created by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, to facilitate drug discovery
A flower which can treat skin cancer and prevent greying of hair
Used for worship and hair colouring, modern entrepreneurs have found new uses for the hibiscus flower
Mountains of Sanjeevani
The Uttarakhand government's initiative to spend Rs 25 crore on an elusive mythical herb should trigger a wider quest to identify, document and …
The wisdom of indigenous healers
Medicinal Plants of India - Vols I & II S K Jain and Robert A DeFillips Publisher: Reference Publications Price: US $94.95
Where are the tapovans?
Both India and China are ancient civilisations possessing characteristic indigenous knowledge of conservation of natural ecosystems. The Chinese …
Implement the Biological Diversity Act in its true spirit
It is high time the Centre and states did so. It would save India from a number of avoidable problems
Sweet ’n’ sour
Moringa and tamarind are popularly known as the trees of life for Indians. Moringa is in fashion as the world eyes India to feed its frenzy for …
Desert blooms
Halophytes - plants growing on saline soil - could be India's Answer to the problems of salt desert and wasteland reclamation, besides Being …
The secret garden
Want to know about a lost variety of rice or a cure to asthma? Answers lie in the notebooks of schoolchildren and women of the Sundarbans and …
How Adivasis of one Jharkhand village are trying to preserve ethnomedicine
With ‘civilisation’ and ‘modernity’ having made inroads into India’s tribal areas, its heritage of traditional …
Black beauty
Black rice is drought resistant and has rich medicinal properties. Manipur and Assam are reviving this variety
Highs and lows
The government's vanaspati van scheme is good news, but for it to succeed small-scale farmers and local communities have to be brought in its fold
Grow more
There is no land to cultivate medicinal plants, neither are there any legal provisions, nor market access. At present, the risks involved are …
A Himalayan Tragedy
People who have no idea about forests step in to further trade, while the indigenous herb gatherers get exploited further
Herbal heist
Hand-in-glove with the forest department, traders of medicinal plants and herbs make hay while communities who depend on herb gathering for …
Super Market
Secretive. Exploitative. Is the market in Minor Forest Produce unmanageable? sopan joshi finds out
India opposes patent application by British company
Earlier, an attempt by Colgate-Palmolive to use patent on a mouthwash was also foiled
The Avon lady lifts our biodiversity
Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material
