Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Memorial Lecture: II

Conservation: The endangered wild economic species would be saved through
mass multiplication. The multiplication will be undertaken through techniques
appropriate to a species, through seed, clonal propagation, or tissue culture. The
plants thus raised would be made available to concerned Departments of Forests,
for purposes of restocking in nature and ex situ conservation in Botanic Gardens,
Arboreta, Botany Departments in Universities, colleges and schools, research
institutions etc.
Domestication and Cultivation: A few selected species would be used to take up
cultivation to meet the demand of herbal drug trades. In this process, Village
Councils (Panchayats) would also be involved. The idea is to relieve pressure on the
natural populations thus help these species to regenerate under the in situ
conditions. At the same time, make cultivation cheaper and easier than collection
from nature for trade purposes. The advantages of domestication and cultivation of
wild economic plants are given in Table 5. In short, sustainable production itself
would become a conservation strategy.
Table 5: Advantages of cultivation of wild economic plants.
Collection from
the wild
Cultivation
Botanical identity Chances of misidentification
Definite
Availability of Questionable-Decrease Definite
Material
due to over collection
Supply Unpredictable Definite
Genetic improvement None High
Protection from Only natural Can be augmented
Diseases & pests
Harvesting Not controlled Can be very
good
Agronomy None Possible to increase
Yields after standardization
Post harvest None or poor Can be very good
Technology
Adulteration High Rare if ever
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