ICFRE trains tribals to grow rare medicinal plant ‘Juniper Shukpa’
Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education( Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change) organized one day workshop to grow the nursery of Juniper Shukpa and cultivation of important temperate medicinal plants in the cool Clime of Spiti in Lahaul-Spiti district.
Addressing the participants AS Rawat, Director General of the ICFRE said that this plant is being grown in many Himalayan State as Juniper Shukpa has immense medicinal properties.
This plant also helps these Himalayan states protect their environment and it is means of livelihood for people leaving in far-off places.
Juniper (Pencil Cedar) is an important coniferous tree of the northwest Himalayan region. In India, this tree is mainly found in the Kinnaur and Lahaul, and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh and in the Gurez Valley and Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, and in the high-altitude areas of Uttarakhand.
In the local parlance, this plant is also known by the names Shur, Shukpa, Shurgu, Lashuk, and Dhoop.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Kaza Rahul Jain said that more people could be benefited from this plant in Spiti after learning the technique of growing Juniper nursery.
He said that Peoplee could earn additional income at home and it would help to strengthen the medicinal industry by creating a sustainable economy.
The director of the institute, Dr. Sandeep Sharma informed that the institute successfully multiplied Juniper Nursery at Tabo.
He said that people should learn the skills of plantation techniques and also develop local nurseries for supply in the area as its survival rate also improved in the locally available planting material.
He said that the institute would also help Forest Department to prepare its saplings for plantation as the nursery techniques developed by that institute have opened the doors for its plantation to all.
