GHNP is home to 34 of the 47 medicinal plants categorised as threatened in Himachal Pradesh. The wonderful variety of these plants has been a mixed blessing ‒ on the one hand adding colour to the landscape but on the other drawing herb hunters who threaten their very survival. Having long been a source of traditional medicine, the plants are now used in modern pharmacology.
In the past, medicinal plants were collected in small quantities for local use, but more recently a fashion for natural medicines amongst the wealthy in India and elsewhere have turned their collection into a lucrative business, drawing outsiders and encouraging harvesting on an unsustainable scale.
At present, GHNP’s management is developing alternatives to harvesting that will provide local people with equivalent income without damaging the delicate ecosystems where medicinal plants are collected.