The Union Government is supporting a project to promote cultivation of medicinal plants along the shores of river Ganga, in the states of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal as part of central scheme.
The Union Ministry of AYUSH is implementing “Medicinal Plants” component under “Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission” (NAM) since 2015-16 throughout the country. The project along Ganga bed is also under this programme.
Apart from this, the Ministry of AYUSH under its “Central Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants” has also supported a project titled “Dissemination of Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) agrotechnology in flood-prone contaminated area of Ganga river of Uttar Pradesh” to Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow. Under the project Vetiver plantation has been done in catchment area of river Ganga in different location of Kanpur and Varanasi districts.
In addition, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti has also supported a project titled “Promotion of cultivation of medicinal plants on Ganga basin in Uttar Pradesh” to Uttar Pradesh Forest Department covering 10 districts of the state viz. Prayag Raj, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Chandauli and Ballia.
National AYUSH Mission (NAM) is a flagship scheme of Ministry of AYUSH. The basic objective of NAM is to promote AYUSH medical systems through cost effective AYUSH services, strengthening of educational systems, facilitate the enforcement of quality control of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani & Homoeopathy (ASU &H) drugs and sustainable availability of ASU & H raw-materials. It envisages flexibility of implementation of the programmes which will lead to substantial participation of the State Governments/UT.
