A garden of medicinal plants on the Abhin Chandra Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital campus at Unit-III in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 13: Medicinal gardens at the Abhin Chandra Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital and the Government Ayurveda Hospital are wallowing in neglect without maintenance.

“The garden helps students to identify a particular medicinal plant, so that they can know the source of medicine, which is generally extracted from the concerned plant. The pharmacy wing can also manufacture drugs once the plants start yielding products in bulk,” said Surjya Narayan Misro, principal of the homoeopathic college.

But, when will the students benefit from the garden at Kharavela Nagar has become a matter of concern as it lacks a gardener.

“We can take our kids to the medicinal plant garden, so that they would gain knowledge on taxonomy of common plants with medicinal values. But, the hospital authorities should keep the garden in good shape,” said Manoj Ray, a teacher, who stays in a colony near the homoeopathic college.

Almost similar is the case with the garden at the ayurveda hospital at Nageswar Tangi as the lone gardener will retire by the end of this month.

The gardens were built in 2003 following a grant of Rs 3.7 lakh each under central scheme for development and cultivation of medicinal plants by Ayush (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) department of the health ministry.

The garden at the homoeopathic hospital was built mainly to develop plant products from tree species such as neem, arjuna, ashoka, bel, jamun and baula. Similarly, shrub species such as chitraka and guggula and herb species such as thalkudi, pippali and anantamula were also included. It had 238 plants.

But, construction to extend the hospital building has completely affected the shrub garden and the herb plants in part. Besides, several trees were also damaged during Phailin in October last.

“The hospital building with 50 beds was built in 1969 as the only government homoeopathic medical college and hospital in the state, but the medicinal plant garden came up only 11 years ago. A portion of the garden had to be sacrificed to extend the building,” said Misro.

However, even after the construction eating into portion of the three-acre garden, authorities have not taken up steps to reintroduce the lost shrub species on the available land. The water supply system has not been developed for the garden since 2003.

“We are running with limited support staff. There is a great difficulty in taking care of the garden. In 2009, we requested the Ayush director to provide us a fund of Rs 11 lakh to revive and maintain the garden. But, it is yet to arrive,” said a senior faculty member of the pharmacy department.

The college’s pharmacy wing that is managing the garden has sought the grant for manure, pesticide, utensils, equipment and labourers.

Similarly, the medicinal plant garden at the ayurveda hospital near Mausi Maa Square with nearly 35 herbal species is suffering badly as there is no maintenance, soil-filling and watering due to lack of funds.

“There is no provision to maintain the herbal species. We mainly have plants used for the panchakarma treatment in ayurveda. However, once the only gardener retires, the situation will be more pathetic,” said the hospital’s deputy superintendent Durga Charan Dash.

Dash, however, said the medicinal plants were only for the demonstration purpose as they were not yielding any produce, which could be used for extracting medicine. “We are purchasing plant products from suppliers to manufacture medicines,” he said.

Chief executive of the state medicinal plant board H.S. Upadhya said: “Till last year, there was no provision to help the institutional medicinal plant gardens. If there would be any provision this year, we will definitely come forward to help the institutions.”