‘Focus on herbal med to fight comorbidity’

Addressing an online panel discussion on the implementation of Forest Rights Act here on Friday, SDPC vice-chairman C Ponnaiyan urged the district collectors and district forest officers to allow and support the TN tribes in cultivating quality herbs, honey, Kadukkai (Terminalia Chebula), curry leaves and other forest produces. He also alleged that traders from other states were exploiting the natural herbal resources of TN and urged the State officials to empower forest dwellers and tribals.

In his interaction with Tirunelveli and The Nilgiris collectors, Ponnaiayan suggested expanding the scope of bee conservation and honey collection. For Kallakurichi district, the focus should be on kadukkai. Honey, kadukkai and curry leaves are rich in antioxidants with iron that help to fight diabetes, anaemia and blood cholesterol. In the wake of increasing comorbid conditions, there is a need to produce more value-added products based out of raw products harvested from forests, he said.

Ponnaiyan also urged the foresters and revenue officials to speed up the pending land litigation issues related to tribal settlements and the Janmam estate land disputes pending since 1974. The SDPC members also reviewed the status of the land rights issued to tribes and non-tribal dwellers in Mudumalai and Kalakad Mundanthurai tiger reserves.

Forest Secretary Sandeep Saxena and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests pointed out that the department was closely working with the revenue administration in clearing the land titles for the tribes who are living for more than three generations. Coimbatore Collector K Rajamani explained that non-tribal dwellers and tribes were finding it difficult to get the land rights as they have to prove their claim of presence in the forests for more than 75 years. The Nilgiris Collector Innocent Divya and Tirunelveli Collector Shilpa Prabhakar shared the success stories of tribal livelihood programmes from Mudumalai and Kalakkad Mundanthurai tiger reserves.