It is reported that more than 800 species of plants are being used currently by the industries for large scale production of herbal products of which less than 20 species are cultivated commercially, that is, more than 95% of the medicinal plants used by the Indian industry are collected from the wild (Anonymous 2001). Mr. Ramesh, head of `Banajalaya', a voluntary organization in "Kodluthota' in the Maradavally State Forest, established to educate the local people on various aspects of forestry management, reveals that more than 70% of the collections from the wild involve destructive harvesting of roots, bark, wood, stems and whole plants (Fig-10). This poses a serious threat to the genetic stock and to the diversity of medicinal plants.
Medicinal plants are gathered from the wild by collectors through the tribals, forest dwellers and other local people. The collected material is passed on to the traders in towns and cities. Each one of the major traders has one or more traditional drug manufacturers and private pharmacies as their customers for purchasing raw plant material. Generally, as the price paid to the gatherers is very low, the gatherers often mine the plants excessively to generate more income. Greed to earn more, coupled with the ignorance of the collector about plant biology and selective harvesting leads to the whole plant being destroyed. For example, the indiscriminate removal of bark fromDiospyros montanain the forests near Kodluthota village in Maradavally SF has resulted in the death of several trees.
The collected materials are mostly dumped with the traders, who with their limited knowledge sort out the saleable ingredients in a crude manner, resulting in contamination with other materials leading to poor quality. Many of the medicinal plants are sensitive to climatic conditions, requiring proper drying and storage under specific temperature and humidity. This aspect is largely neglected by the collectors, growers and traders leading to deterioration and rejection of the produce particularly for the international market. For example: the forest collectors gather 10-15 ton ofSapindus laurifoliusfruits every year in Maradavally SF between October and December. The limited sunshine during these months results in improperly dried fruits, leading to inferior quality and rejection, and as a consequence a loss of income and wasted resources.
In an unorganised collection system the collector who gathers the material from the wild will have no idea about its destination or usage. Similarly, the companies which receive the material also will have no knowledge of its source of origin. There is an example of a company in Bangalore which receives several tons of raw materials ofCassia fistula, Acacia pinnata, Emblica officinalis, Coleus forskohlli, Piper longumetc., through their contractors every month. These products are either gathered from the wild or cultivated. No documents have been maintained either by the contractors or the company about the source of the material, methods of handling, and cultivation practices. For instance, many farmers use copper fungicides indiscriminately against bacterial wilt in cultivation ofColeus forskohlli. This is not known to the company. The complexity of collection is such that, it would be very difficult to adopt any strategy of certification on the basis of sources of origin or product quality. Social certification and management certification of the medicinal plant products collected from the wild is also complex and demands a variety of conditions which require additional knowledge and resources and create extra costs.
In the absence of any regulatory mechanism, the trade of medicinal plants is very secretive. Stakeholders like collectors, contractors, traders, wholesale dealers and companies involved in collection and processing of medicinal plants do not understand nor trust each other. Similarly in the absence of a proper management system, neither the collector nor the contractor who extract medicinal plant products from the wild will have any responsibility of replenishing the natural resources through re-planting. For this purpose, the role of local non-political voluntary organizations becomes significant and allows them to participate in collection and maintenance of natural resources. In Maradavally SF, a forest contractor residing in Sagar town collects minor forestry products including medicinal plants through local agents. The contractor obtains a collection contract by bidding in annual auctions for minor forestry products by the Forest Department. The Forest Department on record, auctions only 5 minor products, whereas the contractor collects more than 40 types from the forestry.