Ranchi, Aug. 7: Amid protests from villagers, representative of Patanjali Yog Peeth, Baba Balkrishna, today laid the foundation stone for a herbal park at Dami village near Bundu.

State welfare minister Ramesh Singh Munda was also present on the occasion to restrain villagers from taking any wrong steps.

The district administration had provided 68-acre land in February this year at the behest of the state government. For laying of the foundation stone today, the district administration had started preparations from August 5.

But the villagers protested against it on the plea that it was their Sarna religious land.

Later, subdivisional officer Vinod Shanker Singh tried to remove their confusion by saying that it was a government land. He showed supporting documents to substantiate his claim. But the agitating villages again assembled yesterday to protest any move to set up the herbal park.

Later the local MLA and the welfare minister had to intervene to calm the villagers.

Collectorate sources said that the herbal park will help cure diseases with the help of “naturopathy” and promote ayurveda, the traditional medical science.

If the park comes into existence, it would be first of its kind in the state, the sources added.