HOME REMEDIES: Medical plants stocked at the Nss Ayurveda Hospital in Aranmula for free distribution to household as part of the UPDP-GOI- sponsored Endogenous Tourism Project.

PATHANAMTHITTA: Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district and Kumbalangi in Ernakulam have been selected for the two-year Endogenous Tourism Project (ETP), jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (IJNDP) and the G overnment of India.. Under it, each household in the two places would have a herbal garden.
The UNDP-GOJ project aims to promote and preserve local culture and craft-based eco-tourism for sustainable rural live. lihood. District Collector Rabeendra Kumar Agarwal is the nodal officer and executive director of the State-run Vasthu. Vidya Gurukulam. P.N. Suresh is the implementing officer of the project.
Mr. Agarwal told The Hindu that the main objective of the project was to facilitate capacity building, and thereby enable low-income village communities create and articulate their skills from within and support innovative and promising rural tourism initiatives.
The Community Ayurvedic Training Centre is one of the seven schemes to be implemented in Aranmula as part of the project, he said.
During his visit to Kerala, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had stressed the need to promote medicinal plant cultivation and pharmaceutical industry as part of his 10-point development agenda for the State.
According to Mr. Suresh, the Rehabilitation Plantation Limited in Punalur has donated 11 ' 300 medicinal plant saplings belonging to nine species to the Vasthu Vkba Gurukulam, which has been identified as an implementing, agency of the UNDP project for free distrfbuti4n in Aranmula.

Mr. Suresh said the saplings would be distributed through the NSS Ayurvedic Hospital in Aranmula, which is the ETP resource centre that provides guidance on the cultivation and use of these plants to the local people.
According to Dr. B.Harikumar, resource person, the medicinal plants to be distributed to local households from Friday are Punica Granatum (Mathalanarakom), Tricopus Zeylanicus (Arogyappacha), Emblica Officinalis (Nefli), Asparagus Racemosus (Sataveri), Acasia Catechu (Karingali), Cessalpinia Sappan (Patimukhom), Becopa Monnied (BrabmD, Kaempferia Galanga (Kacholom) and Curucuma Aromatic (Kasturi-manjal).
A pamphlet detailing the planting method and medicinal value of each plant with its therapeutic use as a home remedy would also be distributed to the local people, said Dr. Harikumar.

Mr. Suresh said 'a herbal garden in every house' was the slogan of the project and more saplings would be distributed in the next two years.
Promotion of mud technology,. environment-friendly construction methods and Vastuvidya, art appreciation and training programmes, mural painting workshops and promotion of the ancient metallurgy of the unique Aranmula Kannadi (metal mirror) are the other schemes being included in, the two-year UNDP-GOI project.
The Collector said the ETP would be implemented in two parts of “hardware” that involved basic infrastructure development and 'software,' which provides training and other tourism-related activities. He said Rs.50 lakhs had been earmarked for implementing 'hardware' part and Rs.20 for the 'software.'
The hardware schemes be implemented by the local grama panchayat, Travancore Devaswom Board, Pampa Parirakshing Samiti and Palliyoda Seva Sanghom, which organizes the famous Aranmula Vallamkali (snakeboat pageantry) while the Vasth Vidya Gurukulam would implement the software schemes, Mr Agarwal said.