Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur to be part of National Mission on Seabuckthorn

The other three districts part of the initiative,jointly taken by the Ministry of Environment and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO),are Leh and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir and Chamoli in Uttarakhand.

DRDO chief Dr W Selvamurthy said: “Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh and I met Planning Commission member Kasturirangan and submitted the National Action Plan on Seabuckthorn Development — wherein we have a target of greening one million hectares of land by 2020 through seabuckthorn cultivation. Nearly Rs 25 crore have already been released as seed money for the work.”

The action plan was prepared by Dr Virender Singh,a professor of seabuckthorn at Palampur Agriculture University who has been working on the plant for the last two decades. “Dr Virender Singh will be actively involved in the mission,along with a number of other experts,” Selvamurthy told The Indian Express.

The DRDO chief added: “Before taking up the project,the DRDO has done a thorough research on the qualities of this plant and undertaken satellite mapping of the area under seabuckthorn. Barely 11,500 hectares are under seabuckthorn and the area needs to be substantially increased to meet the needs of the industry,which will come up to buy the fruit. The plant has immense environmental values beside its economic utilities.”

Under the mission,the ministry and the DRDO propose to involve the locals,self-help groups and the private sector in cultivation and propagation of the plant. “Women self-help groups in Lahaul-Spiti have already taken up cultivation of the plant in a big way,” said Phungchug Rai,a former state minister who was part of an official delegation to China to study seabuckthorn properties.

A team of five eminent seabuckthorn experts — Dr Tej Partap,Vice-Chancellor,Srinagar University; Dr Virendra Singh (PAU); Dr P S Ahuja,Director,CSIR,Palampur; Dr Balaji,Forest Officer,Leh; and Dr T Stobdan,seabuckthorn scientist at the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research,Leh,has been constituted to assist the ministry in formulating the project to green cold deserts of the country.