As a precautionary measure, the Delhi-based National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) will on Tuesday launch a Rs 8-crore project for conservation and cultivation of this highly traded medicinal plant in this border district.

“We are the largest quality Guggal-producing district in the country. We have an ideal environment— open and moderately sloped dry hills with sparse scrubs— for its growth. Overexploitation coupled with natural factors like recurrent droughts had led to its depletion. We have now prepared a project report and sent it to NMPB for its approval and funding. It has been approved, and we are implementing it in a big way,” P N Buch, Range Forest Officer told Newsline on Monday .

According to him, the plant has been propagated mainly through seeds and stem cuttings. He said at the Range Office’s Chakar Nursery, as many as 10,000 plants have been raised from seeds and they were likely to complete the target of raising one lakh plants, shortly.

He added that their enrichment plantation, where 15,000 plants had been raised in 30 hectares, has been visited by the Principal Secretary for Forest and Environment, Gujarat, P N Roy Chowdhary, and other senior officials.

He said the new project to be launched on Tuesday envisaged an annual plantation of Guggal in 500 to 700 hectares for three years.