Forest and human health with special reference to India
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Forests are intricately linked with human health for physical, mental, and social wellbeing. India has traditionally followed culture of living in and around forests. Atmospheric pollution in urban areas (due to industrialization) increases the risk of various respiratory and heart diseases. Trees not only mitigate the greenhouse effect but also absorb toxic chemicals and particulate matter, thus acting like human liver in this way. A visit to green urban areas acts like a stress buster and recharges the batteries. This has resulted in development of urban forestry hubs, creating small areas of trees: herbs and shrubs under various names such as city forest, parks, smriti/rashi/nakshatra van etc. Planting of species which may create problems as pollen pollution/wind damage/ lowering groundwater table /other kind, needs to be avoided. Forests are the largest repositories of a large variety of medicinal plants. Various medicinal systems such as Ayurveda, Allopathy, homeopathy, Unani, tribal, alternative medicine use raw material from forest. Importance of Medicinal plants has increased over the last few decades with environmental restrictions on felling of trees. Herbal remedies in India are now the responsibility of Ayush Ministry, Government of India. National Medicine Plants Board coordinates overall conservation, cultivation, trade and export of medicinal plant sector in India. A referenced digital data base from published sources is now in place. Demand and supply of medicinal plants along with list of suitable species for various ago -climatic zones has been prepared. Medicinal plants now find a proper place in the management plans of various forest divisions. To boost
the cultivation of medicinal plants, a lot of grey areas have to be addressed. Government of India is already exploring possibility of long-term Public Private partnerships in degraded forests for this purpose also.
Keywords: One Health, Human health and well-being, Genetic resources, Innovation, Knowledge management.
ID: 3484385