DEHRADUN: The research unit of the Uttarakhand forest department has claimed to have found in the Dronagiri hills a herb similar to Sanjeevani Booti, the mythical plant from the Ramayana that is believed to have amazing healing properties.
Many are seeing it as a revival of the enthusiasm that died after the present BJP state government showed no interest in the project and stopped its funding.
Mayaram Uniyal, former director of Uttarakhand Ayush department and a practitioner of Ayurveda, said: “The discourse and discussion has always been there but let the results come to confirm the hypothesis. Only then we can be certain about the results.” The samples of the herb, found in Jauljivi area of Pithoragarh district, will be sent to National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, to ascertain the properties of the plant for confirmation.
The team that found the plant in Jauljivi said the type of the plant is the same as the one found on Dronagiri hills years ago. In 2016, a committee was set up by the Uttarakhand government to track down the magical herb.
According to the Ramayana, Hanuman was asked to fetch the herb from the Himalayas to save the life of Lakshman, Lord Ram’s brother, after he became unconscious while fighting Meghnath, Ravana’s eldest son.
The committee had intended first to find the herb in the Himalayan range. “The Dronagiri range of the Himalayas will be scoured in the search of the herb, the discovery of which is bound to be difficult as even Lord Hanuman had not been able to identify it and had to uproot the entire Dronagiri mountain and bring it all the way to Ravana’s Lanka,” Surendra Singh Negi, the state’s Ayush minister in 2016, had said at the time.
Ayurvedic experts expressed delight at the development and said the herb is not fictional but real. The team members who are working on the project refused to comment on the matter until something concrete comes up.