In new-look Bihar, herbs take over cowsheds at 1 Anne Marg

Though planted only in June last year, the fields are already in a stage where they can supply seeds to farmers, who can in turn take up commercial cultivation of the plants.

From 1990 to 2005, the fields of this bungalow used to house around 200 cows, apart from potato fields and other traditional crops planted by the family in power. A portion of the field was also used as playground by the children, especially a cricket pitch for the two sons.

But now the cows and dung mounds have disappeared. The cowsheds have been replaced by a new structure where the CM holds his Janta ka Darbar and the potato fields transformed into a herbal garden.

In the fields behind the bungalow, nameplates clearly indicate the plant species and the ailment it cures.

“We have got over 100 plants from states like Karnataka, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh,” points out Mishra. It even has the prized American sunflower, obtained courtesy a bureaucrat’s relative in the US. Sarwagandha (an ayurvedic replacement for sleeping pills), Kalmegh (for liver ailments) and Gurmar (medicine for diabetes) are

the more useful of the plants in the herbal garden.

So what will Nitish do with the large variety of herbs? The Yadavs in fact used to sell milk and other dairy produce. “The chief minister wants to build a resource centre here. Planting material will be developed and supplied to farmers from the CM’s house,” explains Mishra.

But all this is nothing new for the CM. In fact, ayurveda has been in his family for long. His father was a well known ayurvedic doctor in Bakhtiarpur and the tradition is now kept alive by his elder brother.

“On this count Lalu, who kept his traditions alive even as CM, and Nitish are the same,” remarked a JD(U) leader.