Turn around the pages of history and you would find the best remedies through primordial and most effective Unani way of treatment for seasonal diseases, viruses, pandemic and chronic ailments with just a snap of a finger. The more you through the primordial way of medication into oblivion the less you find proper and effective remedies to deal with seasonal diseases and virus when they assail with their full might.
However, the irony is at a time when the panic stricken people squeals for an effective remedy against viciously hunting coronavirus and research activities gain prominence, the research institutions in the state especially the Government Herbarium (Unani) at Kattedan under Rajendranagar is inexplicably lies in shambles while it’s primary aim is to raise medicinal plants and promote institutional atmosphere for the students to help them carry out research activities.
This institute formed to provide appropriate knowledge and specifications about plants full of medicinal values. Students, especially those pursuing Bachelor in Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) were often made to visit the herbarium in order to stimulate their minds about the importance of plants and their medicinal properties with healing effects which are greatly beneficial for human health.
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It is said that lack of proper care and supervision over the years made the medicinal plants here die their own death. A significant number of herbs with impressive medicinal values have dried up due to lack of irrigation on regular bases while the only borewell available in the premises remained defunct for several months.
“The student visits were largely bunged since the last two years and the only bore well used to irrigate the saplings and plants was also defunct for almost six months. This has led to a significant damage to hundreds of herbs in the institution. Last year the premises were inundated completely due to heavy rains and subsequent floods in the nearby lakes. Since then there were no measures taken up to restore the herbs or the bore well. We have written a letter to higher ups for provision of funds to take up repair works of the bore well and the response is awaited,” informed an official on the condition of anonymity.
The Herbarium, that spreads on a sprawling area of around four acres and has myriad hundreds of saplings and trees of medicinal value, is surrounded by hundreds of industries in Kattedan industrial area. Also, the herbarium stood a few meters away from Tata Nagar area from where a large number of polluting industries are being flushed out by the GHMC.
“Negligent attitude towards the prestigious institution of experimental importance should be blamed for an inexplicable situation wherein the herbarium with full of rich and healing plants have dried up due to drought like situation that too in an area where there is no dearth of water for irrigation,” rued Dr.A.A.Khan, State President, All India Unani Tibbi Congress (AIUTC), Hyderabad.
Generally, he further said, the students practicing BUMS were posted at this Herbarium to pound over the medicinal importance and specifications of the herbs that help them expand their horizons of understanding about the subject. “Since no such plants existed anymore and most of them were dried up, how will the students carry out their experimental research? The concerned unit officers should be held responsible for the present state of affair at the herbarium,” bemoaned Dr.Khan.
Director and Additional Director of AYUSH (Unani) should be held responsible for the present negligible state of affair in herbarium at Kattedan, he said, adding that “The top officials never take the Telangana Unani Medical Officers Association office bearers into confidence and ask for their suggestions in promoting the Unani Medication.”
“The concerned authorities must sanction sufficient funds to grow Medicinal Plants in the herbarium which can be supplied to state dispensaries so as to distribute them among the public in order to bring awareness about home remedies that are mostly helpful in preventing the seasonal diseases and viruses,” Asserted Dr.Khan.
“While it is a happiest moment for the Unani fraternity to have a research scholar like Dr.Mujtaba Hashmi who got the approval for clinical trials through Unani way of medication from ICMR – a coveted medical body of the country, the plight of Government Unani Herbarium at Kattedan is completely inexplicable and atrocitarious. People practicing Unani especially the Unani fraternity should come forward to protect the primordial way of medication which is no doubt thrown into oblivion all these years due to the prejudiced attitude of the government,” Syed Shoukat Ali, a community activist.
