Medicinal Plant Biodiversity in India:
Harnessing Opportunities for Promoting
Livelihood and Food Security
Sunil Nautiyal , K. C. Smitha and Harald Kaechele
Abstract India’s rich biodiversity is distributed across its ecological regions. Traditional medicinal plants are recognised for their value and they constitute source
of livelihood and food security for large Indian population. Cultivation of medicinal
plants is also a source of income; thereby improve the standard of living for local
communities and reduce poverty. Yet, today Indian medicinal habitat and ecosystem
are going through tremendous pressure for meeting the requirement of various pharmaceutical and aroma-chemicals related industries. The objective of this paper is to
synthesis the existing information on current status; explore the potential opportunities and constraints in medicinal plant cultivation in India. Based on the documentation of two cases i.e., Bhotiya tribe of Central Himalayan Region and Soliga tribe of
Biligiri Ranga-swamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRTTR), an attempt has been made to
suggest a framework for harnessing medicinal plant cultivation for promoting food
security in India. Finally, SWOT analysis of medicinal plants and food security in
India has been presented.
Keywords Medicinal plants · Biodiversity · Bhotiya tribal community ·
Soliga tribal community · Food security
S. Nautiyal (B) · K. C. Smitha
Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, Institute for Social and Economic
Change, Bengaluru, India
e-mail: nautiyal_sunil@yahoo.com
S. Nautiyal · H. Kaechele
Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V., Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374
Müncheberg, Germany
H. Kaechele
Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), Schicklerstraße 5, 16225
Eberswalde, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_7
135
Harnessing Opportunities for Promoting
Livelihood and Food Security
Sunil Nautiyal , K. C. Smitha and Harald Kaechele
Abstract India’s rich biodiversity is distributed across its ecological regions. Traditional medicinal plants are recognised for their value and they constitute source
of livelihood and food security for large Indian population. Cultivation of medicinal
plants is also a source of income; thereby improve the standard of living for local
communities and reduce poverty. Yet, today Indian medicinal habitat and ecosystem
are going through tremendous pressure for meeting the requirement of various pharmaceutical and aroma-chemicals related industries. The objective of this paper is to
synthesis the existing information on current status; explore the potential opportunities and constraints in medicinal plant cultivation in India. Based on the documentation of two cases i.e., Bhotiya tribe of Central Himalayan Region and Soliga tribe of
Biligiri Ranga-swamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRTTR), an attempt has been made to
suggest a framework for harnessing medicinal plant cultivation for promoting food
security in India. Finally, SWOT analysis of medicinal plants and food security in
India has been presented.
Keywords Medicinal plants · Biodiversity · Bhotiya tribal community ·
Soliga tribal community · Food security
S. Nautiyal (B) · K. C. Smitha
Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, Institute for Social and Economic
Change, Bengaluru, India
e-mail: nautiyal_sunil@yahoo.com
S. Nautiyal · H. Kaechele
Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V., Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374
Müncheberg, Germany
H. Kaechele
Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), Schicklerstraße 5, 16225
Eberswalde, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_7
135