ABSTRACT:
Chhattisgarh has about 44% of state geographical area and accounts for 13% of the country's total forest cover, and is habitat to variety of trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers, that are valuable for medicinal use. The national and state forest policies emphasize the need for conserving the natural heritage of country by preserving remaining natural forest with many varieties of flora and fauna, which represents a remarkable biological diversity and genetic resource of the country. Indian Ayurvedic medicines constitute a large part of the traditional medicines over the world. Demand of traditional medicines has been increasing, thus the commercial use of medicinal plants is in increasing trend. Due to destructive harvesting practices, lack of awareness about conservation and importance of medicinal plants among the people, sustainability of these plants is a major challenge. The study was conducted with the objective of conservation and uses of the medicinal plants in a "Man Made Forest" developed by ethnomedicine enthusiast near Airport Road, Raipur (C.G.). In this study we report 76 types of medicinal species which are collected from Forest of Chhattisgarh where Asparagus recemosus, Rauvolfia serpentina, Withania sominifera, Cleistanthus collinus, Flacourtia indica and Spilanthes acmella etc. were found to be the dominant species. It is an excellent effort to conserve rare-endangered species. This concept could be beneficial for students, botanists, traditional-healers, research scholars, Pharma sectors and Ayurvedic professionals. Gene pool conservation, capacity building of forest dwellers and farmer can also be initiated through this noble concept. To enhance the conservation of medicinal species this concept should be implemented all over the country. It would be a tremendous effort if the start up of this concept is initiated through our Prime Minister's dream project "Start Up India".