How this Odisha housewife is conserving medicinal plants

Since childhood, Mamata Biswal liked tending to plants and her favourites were basil (tulsi), aloe vera, ashoka and shami because of their medicinal values. After her marriage, she began taking a keener interest in medicinal plants as her husband supported her. She would read all the available books and also browse the internet to gain practical knowledge about cultivating them. 

In 2011, Mamata began growing medicinal plants like vasanga, guduchi (giloy), basil, sarpagandha, ashwagandha (Withania Somnifera), stevia, kalmegh (Andrographis Paniculata), and vetiver grass in large numbers in her home garden. Her work soon spread to public places. 

Since 2016, she has planted thousands of medicinal plants on the premises of schools, colleges, temples and municipal areas in Odisha, conserving biodiversity, and reducing pressure on forests from where these plants are typically collected.

“I have grown around 50 plant species in my house allotted to my husband Manoranjan Biswal (officer on special duty in the Odisha Home Department),” says Mamata who has compiled a book - ‘Ama Ousadhya Udbhida’ (Our Medicinal Plants) in Odia. 

“Cultivating medicinal plants preserves plant species from extinction, especially due to over-harvesting. It also helps avoid man-animal conflict as people don’t need to venture into forests to collect them,” she says.

Though Mamta began cultivating medicinal plants in 2011, the turning point was in 2016 when she was invited by the State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB) to deliver a talk on ‘Saraka Ashoka’ at a training session organized for vaidyas (traditional healers)

Also Read: How this MBA farmer earns Rs6 lakh monthly revenue from basil farming

‘Sarak Ashoka’ is the source for the preparation of ‘Ashokarishta’, a herbal concoction for women. “When I was invited to deliver the talk, I researched further on the plant. Later, when I was appointed as the resource person of SMPB’, I got the opportunity to learn more about these plants,” she says.

SMPB and promotion of medicinal plants

Odisha government’s SMPB promotes the medicinal plant sector through conservation, cultivation, research, and development. It also supports medicinal plant growers through technology dissemination, handholding, and establishing primary processing facilities.

As an SMPB resource person, Mamata shared her knowledge with local practitioners of alternate medicine or vaidyas. 

“We appointed Mamata to help vaidyas who are mostly semi-literate and have limited knowledge,” says former SMPB’s Deputy Conservator of Forests Harmohan Moharatha who retired in 2018.

Every year, Mamata buys around 1,000 saplings from the Forest Department’s Bhubaneswar City Division from her own savings. She cultivates them in her garden and in her friends’ houses and prepares saplings from them. 

“I distribute these saplings for free during plantation drives to those who want to raise their herbal gardens,” says Mamta. 

Now she plans to start selling the saplings so that the earnings can help further her plantation movement.

Also Read: 65-year-old woman turns barren land into organic farm of medicinal plants, earns Rs50 lakh annually

Planting far and wide

Mamata and her team have also planted medicinal plants on the premises of about 120 temples in coastal Odisha including nearly 20 in Balianta and seven in Bhubaneswar. 

“She has planted many medicinal plants including Tulsi, Sandalwood, Ashoka and Shami on the campus of our temple and along the roadside. This prevents people from going to the forests to get the plants and helps in biodiversity conservation,” says Aswini Sahoo who looks after the management of Bhubaneswaari Temple in Bhubaneswar. 

Mamata has also planted saplings on the campuses of over ten schools and colleges in Bhubaneswar including Capital High School and Ramadevi Women’s University. 

Her work is helping students develop a love for biodiversity conservation at a young age. 

Mamata also participates in the Kalinga Herbal Fair organized every year by SMPB in Bhubaneswar to create awareness about the importance of plants. Since 2021, she has been organizing her annual two-day medicinal plant exhibition at Jayadev Bhawan where over 50 species are showcased. 

While at SMPB, she led a team of 20 vaidyas to Thrissur, Trichy and Trivandrum in Kerala in 2017 for an exposure visit to gather knowledge about the system of crop intensification (SCI), and different native medicinal plants in the upland there.  

“We learnt about 4000 medicinal plant varieties during our visit,” says Maheswara Mishra, a vaidya in Balianta of Khordha district. 

“She regularly interacts with over 150 vaidyas including me and helps us upgrade our knowledge,” he adds.

Also Read: Odisha government’s SDCs give a new lease of life to 11,000 sacred groves

Five vaidyas in Western Odisha, who were in the team on the exposure visit, now grow medicinal plants in their areas through SCI. “One of SCI’s methods is to plant saplings in earthen beds by keeping adequate space between each two saplings. This not only helps remove weeds easily but also causes plants’ nutrient growth,” says Dr Debabrata Panda, the assistant professor of biodiversity and conservation of natural resources department of Central University of Odisha in Koraput district.  

She also nurtures a love for birds that leads her to identify plant species that native birds feed on. She accompanies a team of experts who visit Chilika Lake in Odisha to take up the avian census. 

“While the team focuses mostly on migratory birds, native ones are my target. I have found that these birds not only feed on different insects but also on sea plants like Najafaveolata and Phyla Nodiflora. I undertake this venture to educate locals about nurturing native birds with their favourite green feed,” said Mamata     

She also works with the ‘Ever Green Forum’ in Kendrapara district restoring elephant corridors. Last year, she joined its team to identify and plant different saplings along the Maulabhanja-Jiridamali-Anantapur elephant corridor in the Dhenkanal district, and Kanhijena-Anantapur inter-district corridor connecting Dhenkanal with Angul.

(Niroj Ranjan Misra a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports)

Also Read: Kashmiri woman turns barren land into lavender farm; clocks Rs1 crore annual revenues

Look up our YouTube channel