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India ranks eighth among the world’s ten richest nations in biological resources. A melting pot of civilizations from time immemorial, the Himalayas, coastal regions and riverine belts are home to exotic plants, minerals and other life sustaining elements. One of the most profitable projects in hand with the Department of Biotechnology is growing rice and other farm products in saline water. Experts at work expect that in four to five years they could grow rice in saline backwaters or other saline land and utilize three million hectares and grow millions of tons of paddy.
On utilization of saline land for farming, scientists have been at work for a year already. It has been discovered that microbial plants are salt tolerant. Microbiology, one of the key areas just as biotechnology itself, is emerging as an area reaching new frontiers of knowledge to feed billions of people.Whether biotechnology would provide answers to save the world from global warming is a question which has yet to be answered. But scientists say that jatropha, a fuel yielding plant in dryland or wasteland has to be tested for cost effectiveness. Just now, it is believed that a barrel of fuel oil from this plant costs about $29 against the cost of $8 to 10 for petroleum, which has to be transported and is subject to taxation. Whether it is likely to provide the fuel of the future or reduce dependence on the depleting and polluting petroleum resources needs to be pondered over.
According to scientists, biological resources and associated knowledge are emerging as the untapped capital of India. The country being bioresource rich is harnessing them for health, industry and job security of millions. Biotechnology is also catering to safe contraceptives and the utilization of cottonseed oil as a cooking medium in China. Already, genetically modified cottonseeds have been cleared for growing in places like Gujarat as the yields and quality have proved to be good and profitable.
The National Bioresource Development Board has started a comprehensive programme of developing digital inventories of plant, animal and microbial resources of India. Sasya Sampada is one inventory which provides digitized database of 700 medicinal and 2,200 other valuable plants. Their common names, areas of availability, biochemical components, techniques of propagating them and increasing their yields, reproductive processes and economic and scientific uses are being listed.
It is now for entrepreneurs and educated farmers and scientists to tap this knowledge. This work has been done by 40 scientists. Besides medicinal plants, the list includes underutilized food and fodder crops, fuel wood and biomass plants, traditional beverage plants, botanical pesticides to obviate the harmful effects and costs of chemical fertilizers, gums, resins and dyes, sugar and starch plants, fibre and pulp, as also ornamental plants, the demand for which is growing in thousands of nurseries around the country.
Medicinal plants are of significance to the Indian systems of medicine, Ayurveda and Unani. It has been discovered that there are 11 plants which can yield pesticides. Of the 400 plants screened for natural dyes, five have revealed promise for 52 shades of colour. Natural dyes are harmless whereas chemical dyes are known to cause allergies. Dr. S. Natesh, Adviser on Biodiversity, says that the search for useful plants is often like searching for a needle in a haystack. India is one of the very few countries which produces lac in bulk, but at present millions of tons is being exported as raw material. Work is in hand to make value added products and realize the benefits of the country’s resources, says Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Science and Technology.
Another unique project in hand is a garden for the visually handicapped to help them identify plants and their uses by touch, tell and smell.
The Biotechnology Department has now set up a butterfly park in Bangalore to fascinate people with their colour, grace and beauty. Three hundred species of butterflies on the western coast of the country have been identified with their host plants and their distribution along the Western Ghats. It is believed that butterflies are a vanishing species and how the scientists can preserve and multiply them in captivity or natural surroundings is something India might be taking a lead in.The Bangalore butterfly park might perhaps be the first of its kind on a fairly large scale and other countries might emulate India’s example. (PIB Features)
*Senior Freelance Writer
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