DEHRADUN: India's highest-altitude herbal garden with 40 species of Himalayan herbs, including some that are extremely rare and endangered, has come up at a height of 11,000 feet in Mana — the last Indian village near Indo-China border.
The garden spanning three acres was built on van panchayat land by the forest department and inaugurated by Mana village pradhan on Saturday.
“We have established India's highest-altitude herbal garden with an aim to preserve the rich biodiversity of Himalayas which is under threat from climate change,” Sanjeev Chaturvedi, chief conservator of forests (research), Uttarakhand forest department told TOI.
It took the forest department three years to gather the herbs — many of which are found in remote, inaccessible areas that remain snowbound for several months — and grow them in Mana. The harsh weather in the village posed challenges — it experiences snowfall for four months and severe rainfall for at least three months. “To provide the right conditions for the plants to grow here, we experimented with seeds, rhizomes and various scientific methods,” said Chaturvedi.
The park is divided into four zones. The first zone has plants that generally grow at an altitude of 13,700 feet and above and have high medicinal value. It contains endangered Himalayan alpine species like Van Kakdi (podophyllum hexandrum) which is the only surviving species in its genus.
The second zone houses Saussurea species, including the rare Brahma Kamal (saussurea obvallata) — the state flower of Uttarakhand. The third zone contains Ashtavarga species — a group of eight immune system boosters from the Himalayas. Among them are some extremely rare herbs like Kakoli (lilium polyphyllum), Ksheer Kakoli (lilium polyphyllum) and Rishbhak (malaxis acuminata).
The fourth zone is dedicated to Badrinath shrine, which is located just 5km from Mana, and contains plants that are often offered to the deity. These include Badri Tulsi (origanum vulgare), Badri Ber (hippophae salicifolia) and the sacred Bhojpatra.
Village pradhan Pitambar Singh Moolpa said Mana was proud to have “India’s first such high-altitude herbal garden”. Van panchayat sarpanch Veena Badwal added, “Herbs that grow at such high altitudes are vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, we donated the van panchayat land to this conservation program.”
