Jaipur: The Guggal Plants are known for medicinal properties Recently listed on endangered species List of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The fast disappearing plant from the state has seen a huge decline in 56 per cent of the land area in the last 20 years.
Cultivated mostly in arid and semi-arid regions, this plant was once found in abundance in the foothills of the Aravalli range in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, it has seen a sharp decline in its development due to deep cuts and degradation due to increasing urbanization, mining, termite outbreaks, over-exploitation by local people and medical companies. Presently it is found in only 10 districts of the state including Nagaur, Ajmer and Jodhpur.
Suresh Kumar, former head of Integrated Land Use Management and Farming System at Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur said, medicinal plant It has been in danger for the last two decades. It has disappeared in an unscientific and unsustainable manner due to the indiscriminate use of gum extracted from the plant for medicinal use, especially for heart and blood pressure.”
The growth of Guggul is very slow, and it takes 7-10 years to attain full development. It cannot grow anywhere other than at the foothills where water cannot stand for long. The IUCN has been concerned about its disappearance for the past 10 years. In 2010, the body had put it in the ‘data deficient category’, forcing the state government to take steps to restore the medicinal plant, but the efforts seem to have failed.
Sakina Gul, a research scholar at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, claimed in a recent study that the single biggest reason for the disappearance of the Guggal plant is an unscientific method of extracting its resin, which is unregulated.
“I noticed that to increase gum yield, shepherds make deep cuts on the stem and then apply a paste of horse urine mixed with a toxic chemical around the incisions. However, the unscientific process damages the plant’s vascular bundles , lowers the flow of water, which in turn causes the death of the plant within a month or two,” Gul said.
After his interviews with farmers and herders who collected Guggal gum, Gul concluded that many of them started using the tree as firewood. Gul said, “Moderate use of a plant provides glue several times but with a deep cut, it provides glue only once and dies. After its use in firewood, there is no way to reuse it.” No chance.”
Cultivated mostly in arid and semi-arid regions, this plant was once found in abundance in the foothills of the Aravalli range in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, it has seen a sharp decline in its development due to deep cuts and degradation due to increasing urbanization, mining, termite outbreaks, over-exploitation by local people and medical companies. Presently it is found in only 10 districts of the state including Nagaur, Ajmer and Jodhpur.
Suresh Kumar, former head of Integrated Land Use Management and Farming System at Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur said, medicinal plant It has been in danger for the last two decades. It has disappeared in an unscientific and unsustainable manner due to the indiscriminate use of gum extracted from the plant for medicinal use, especially for heart and blood pressure.”
The growth of Guggul is very slow, and it takes 7-10 years to attain full development. It cannot grow anywhere other than at the foothills where water cannot stand for long. The IUCN has been concerned about its disappearance for the past 10 years. In 2010, the body had put it in the ‘data deficient category’, forcing the state government to take steps to restore the medicinal plant, but the efforts seem to have failed.
Sakina Gul, a research scholar at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, claimed in a recent study that the single biggest reason for the disappearance of the Guggal plant is an unscientific method of extracting its resin, which is unregulated.
“I noticed that to increase gum yield, shepherds make deep cuts on the stem and then apply a paste of horse urine mixed with a toxic chemical around the incisions. However, the unscientific process damages the plant’s vascular bundles , lowers the flow of water, which in turn causes the death of the plant within a month or two,” Gul said.
After his interviews with farmers and herders who collected Guggal gum, Gul concluded that many of them started using the tree as firewood. Gul said, “Moderate use of a plant provides glue several times but with a deep cut, it provides glue only once and dies. After its use in firewood, there is no way to reuse it.” No chance.”
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