A recent news report brings to sharp focus the mass-migration of companies based out Karnataka, our neighboring state, shifting their units Faced with a shortage of medicinal plants, companies in Karnataka shift their units to Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Bihar, and reconstituting their operations based on the new production centers. The main reason cited for this seems to be the scarcity and the unwillingness of the local populace to indulge in cultivation of medicinal herbs.
“Himalaya Drug Company, headquartered in Bangalore, has set up a new plant in Chhattisgarh. Charak Pharmaceuticals, which had a unit in Maddur near Mysore, has closed this and shifted it to Nagpur in Maharashtra. Dhoot Papeshwar is another Karnataka company that has shifted its manufacturing facility” -according to the news report, which is a cause for concern and worry.The The Ayurveda industry is estimated at Rs 8,000 crore (the cosmetics industry is considered part of this and contributes about Rs 5,000 crore). The industry is growing at 15-20 per cent annually. By 2020, the ayurvedic industry is expected to reach a size of Rs 15,000 crore. So wouldn’t it make more business sense, to be a part of this growing movement and initiate cultivation of medicinal herbs. The demand is growing – how much more promising can it be?
Karnataka is home to 179 ayurvedic manufacturers, of which 119 are small and medium enterprises. The Karnataka government has also seem to have set up the Medicinal Plants Conservation Authority (MPCA), which is developing protected forests for medicinal plants in 13 selected locations in the state.
An encouraging movement from Kodungallur in Kerala which has embraced organic cultivation of herbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaFjk72ak5w
