Climate change affecting ayurveda, livelihood of 600,000 doctors
By IANSWednesday, October 7, 2009
NEW DELHI - Climate change poses a huge challenge for ayurveda and it is the reason behind many medicinal plants vanishing from India, President Pratibha Patil said here Wednesday. The All India Ayurveda Congress also agreed with her concern, saying it is gradually affecting the livelihood of 600,000 ayurveda practitioners.
“Due to climate change, natural habitat is moving towards an imbalance. Because of it a lot of medicinal plants are vanishing. This is a huge challenge for us,” Patil told a gathering of ayurveda practitioners here.
“To face this, we need to make a concerted effort. We need to categorize these vanishing medicinal plants and make efforts to replant them. In this work you can take the help of institutions like National Medicinal Plant Board,” the president said during her speech at the centenary celebration of the All India Ayurveda Congress.
Debendra Triguna, president of the India Ayurveda Congress, said they (ayurvedic practitioners) second the president’s opinion on the impact of climate change on their life.
Yes, it is affecting ayurveda. It is affecting our livelihood, Triguna told IANS adding that all 600,000 ayurveda practitioners have started feeling the pinch.
We have noticed that many medicinal plants are vanishing. We have observed it more in the last four-five years. Several herbal plants like Kutki, Atisha, Kasturi and Prabal are facing extinction. This is affecting our medicine production and earnings, he rued.
Triguna said they have taken the president’s suggestions seriously and will approach the National Medicinal Plant Board for handling the problem.
We are also in favour of proper registration of ayurveda doctors so that those practicing it illegally can be punished as suggested by the president.
During her speech, Patil advocated further research in ayurveda and registration of its practitioners to popularise them further in India and abroad.
We need to register the ayurveda practitioners. Those who are practicing it illegally need to be tackled strongly. I have always advocated for ayurveda during my foreign trips. The preparation process, I believe, should not be changed while increasing the output of these medicines. Its real essence in medicine making needs to be preserved,” she added.
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October 26, 2009: 10:10 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GsFiouegJM Climate change in Ghana has become a threat to livelihoods. Drought and over flooding in parts of the Northern Region of Ghana has become a yearly worry to the people and government. People along the banks of the Volta river are constantly displaced, homeless and landless. In the South particularly aquatic life is affected as a result of human activities and sea level rise that pollutes water bodies and the main economic activity which is fishing drops and this has affected the income levels of the people. The climate change impacts in Northern part of Ghana results in severe draughts in the dry season, severe floods, high temperatures, influx of pest and diseases taking away human life and property, currently most parts of Northern Ghana is flooded and has rendered people homeless, lost of agricultural products and property. The heavy lost of farm crops is predicted to bring famine if measures are not put in place. The government of Ghana has contracted engineers to come out with ways to solve the problem. The government is also in consultation with Burkina Faso to solve the flooding problems collectively. From a very personal view, I think the political will and commitment to respond fast to climate change has not been evident. African Leaders prefer to sign political agreements and agenda instead of designing these themselves. The fact African leaders never set the pace and lead in these agenda setting therefore limits their say in major issues of international concern. Also there is no common clearly laid down strategies’ by the African continent on how effectively they can handle this issue as a continent. Technologically, Africa has not been very innovative in curbing the effects, for instance green technology and the use of electric cars is gaining grounds in Denmark and Europe as a whole as ways of reducing climate change negative impacts. The question is what is gaining grounds in Africa? Nothing am aware of, or perhaps it’s still in the making, but are we waiting for the worst to happen before we find the solutions? The individual African whose entire livelihood is dependent on our natural resources has no options than to face the severe damages from climate effects in the form of severe draughts, floods, high temperatures, influx of pest and disease among others. The voice of global actors (eg Danish Minister for Climate) for speedy actions must be seen as a wake up call of all Africans politicians especially the youth to look critically into this issue and get motivated to change this course. MDGS INTERRELATIONSHIPS MDG7: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability MDG 1: Eradicate extreme Poverty and Hunger Continuous Degradation of natural resources such as food, medicinal plants, fuel wood etc. and land degradation might lead to poverty MDG2: Achieve Universal Basic Education Availability of water and energy sources particularly girls spend more hours gather Ring water and fell water before going to school and firewood Burden of environmental health threats MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Poor women exposed to indoor air pollution, burden of collecting fuel wood and water, and unequal access to land and natural resources MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality Environmentally related diseases- indoor and local air pollution, unsafe water, poor sanitation MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health Physical stresses associated with the gathering of environmental resources such as firewood, good drinking water. Food availability, water quality, poor sanitation etc caused by environmental degradation tend to affect maternal health. MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases Environmental degradation might lead to poor local economic Mishaps, rural-urban migration and overcrowding. These may lead to HIV/AIDS etc. Increase in temp associated with climate change, poor sanitation conducive for vector multiplication MDG 8: Global Partnership – John F. Kennedy once observed that “our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.” Kenneth Nana Amoateng I’m on assignment to my generation. Jesus is Lord |
Kenneth Nana Amoateng