Living repository
The ethno-botanical garden continues to serve as a permanent conservation resource for the region.
Conservation of medicinal plants
Two decades of Coodu Trust work on medicinal plants — from cultivation workshops in 2002–03 to a 3-acre ethno-botanical garden at the Mayilampatty field office in Karur district, preserving traditional medicinal plant knowledge and biodiversity.
3 Acres
Ethno-botanical garden size
1,057
Women trained in herbal medicinal plants
200
Women trained at the Velliyani nursery
3 Major
Traditional systems: Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani
The project
A living garden to protect traditional healing knowledge
Project mission
Preserving traditional medicinal plant knowledge and biodiversity through the establishment of an ethno-botanical garden, providing education and training to farming communities, students, folk healers, and women's Self-Help Groups on the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plant species.
The work began with training workshops on the cultivation of medicinal plants endemic to Tamil Nadu's Western Ghats, held across several districts with small and marginal farmers and large numbers of rural women; kitchen herbal gardens were the main subject for the women, and Coodu Trust supplied the agro-techniques for homestead gardens. In 2004–05, 1,057 women from Self-Help Groups in Karur, Trichy and Tirunelveli were trained in raising and cultivating herbal medicinal plants, with exposure visits to the Ammapatty Herbal Medicinal Farm in Sanarpatty Block, Dindigul, and the Sivagangai Herbal Medicinal Farm.
At the Mayilampatty field office in Karur district, Coodu Trust then established a dedicated 3-acre ethno-botanical garden — a living repository conserving the medicinal plant species known to the region's ethnic communities, managed by the Trust and used to teach farmers, schools, colleges, folk healers and women's Self-Help Groups. Most recently, in October 2020, a medicinal plant nursery was developed at Velliyani and 200 women were trained there in the value of medicinal plants, home gardens, nursery raising, cultivation and marketing.
The garden documented and preserved knowledge drawn from India's great traditions of plant-based healing — Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. In India, traditional healers are reported to use some 2,500 plant species, of which about 100 serve as regular sources of medicine.
- Ethno-botanical garden
- Knowledge documentation
- Education & training
- Conservation through use
Why this work matters
The challenge on the ground — and our answer
The challenge
Healing knowledge at risk of being lost
Traditional medicinal knowledge held by the region's ethnic communities and folk healers was passing away undocumented, with no living record of the species behind it.
Our response
A living repository and written record
A 3-acre ethno-botanical garden documented, catalogued and cultivated species used in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha — preserving both the plants and the knowledge behind them.
The challenge
Farmers reluctant to grow the herbs
Indigenous medicinal plants carry real commercial value and are exported from Tamil Nadu, yet farmers hold back from cultivating them at scale because they do not know how to market the produce.
Our response
Conservation through use, taught to many
Cultivation and marketing taught alongside conservation — 1,057 SHG women trained in raising herbal medicinal plants in Karur, Trichy and Tirunelveli, and 200 more at the Velliyani nursery.
At a glance
The essentials
- Initiative
- Trust initiativeImplemented by Coodu Trust with no external funder or scheme named
- Period
- 2002–2021Cultivation workshops from 2002–03; ethno-botanical garden recorded from 2008–09; Velliyani nursery training in October 2020
- Location
- Mayilampatty, KarurMayilampatty field office, Karur district; training also at Velliyani and in Trichy and Tirunelveli
- Beneficiaries
- Four target groupsFarmers & rural communities, folk healers, schools & colleges, women's SHG groups
- Systems covered
- Ayurveda, Unani, SiddhaPlus ethnic community healing practices of the region
- Part of
- Biodiversity conservationUnder the Environment & Resilience sector
Outcomes
What the project changed
Educational hub
A training platform for farmers, schools and colleges, folk healers and women's Self-Help Groups — 1,057 women trained in herbal medicinal plants in 2004–05 and 200 more at the Velliyani nursery in 2020.
Knowledge preservation
Documented and preserved traditional medicinal knowledge that was at risk of being lost.
Get involved
Help protect medicinal plant heritage
Support conservation work that keeps traditional healing knowledge and native biodiversity alive for the communities of Tamil Nadu.