Champua: Champua subdivision in Keonjhar district which is well known for its natural resources, rich mineral deposits and wide varieties of medicinal plants, is gradually losing out its medicinal plant cover due to excessive mining and deforestation, a report said.
According to reports, Kalikaprasad, Sunaposi, Kainta and Mukundpur forests of the Champua region in the district earlier contained several rare and valuable medicinal plants, which have suffered destruction over time.
Forest fire also has been a major threat to the survival of medicinal plants here. Manmade occurrences of forest fire have destroyed several plants like Mahakal, Bhringaraj, Bhuin Amla, Khandakhai, Pedipedika, Varun, Ashok, Shatabari, Harida and Amla among several others.
Absence of revival of the lost forest cover and massive deforestation in this region have resulted in taking out the traditional occupation of ayurvedic medicine practitioners, who were curing several chronic ailments with several rare medicinal plants collected from this region.
As a gift of nature, administration of such ayurvedic medicines had been quite popular throughout the state. The practitioners here usually collect shrub stems, leaves, flowers and plant roots, for preparing their medicines to treat diseases like jaundice, orthopedics, rheumatism, digestive disorders, asthma and many other chronic disorders.
Local ayurvedic medicine practitioners namely Netrananda Maharana, Abdul Rehman and Ramakanta Pradhan have expressed their deep concern over this growing menace. The state government should promote revival of lost forests in Champua subdivision, they urged.