{"id":1689,"date":"2020-12-24T06:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T06:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drrajaramtripathi.com\/?p=1689"},"modified":"2020-12-24T06:35:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T06:35:33","slug":"lord-of-the-jungle-and-the-magic-potion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drrajaramtripathi.com\/?p=1689","title":{"rendered":"Lord of the jungle and the magic potion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once a bank officer, the determined herbal king of Kondagaon shakes money from trees in the Maoist strongholds of Bastar through a collective of 20,000 Tribals whose business looks to expand worldwide. The man and his empire<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a bank officer, the determined herbal king of Kondagaon shakes money from trees in the Maoist strongholds of Bastar through a collective of 20,000 Tribals whose business looks to expand worldwide. The man and his empire<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Jadi booti: literally, roots and plants, the extracts from the roots of plants and shrubs generally defined as herbs, popularly ascribed to India\u2019s many-limbed kingdoms of green<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mythologised, problematised, proselytised, traditional herbs are a national (and international) obsession and a huge industry worth around Rs 9,000 crore, according to National Medicinal Plant Board of India estimates. From the verdant, Naxal- ridden district of Bastar in Chhattisgarh where Bastar champagne (a rare beverage made from the sulfi tree) and tasty fruits called\u00a0kurlu<\/em>\u00a0are found, a much-publicised local form of Viagra (a rare indigenous variety of safed musli) has made a name for itself\u2014through a man who has been translating the bounties of the jungle for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ple of decades ago, now tanned and very much a son of the soil. \u201cIt combats diabetes, and rejuvenates your entire system, reverses metabolism. People will slowly say, after you eat it for three or four months, that your wrinkles have lifted.\u201d Big talk? Local Tribals are said to have lived longer and better on traditional health practices, using the abundant herbs and roots at their disposal to stay vital and virile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like Alice in Wonderland,\u201d Tripathi says of his first experience with the jungle\u2019s potent flora, when we meet him on one of his 10 farms. We walk through long, vertiginous rows of trees in his ethno-medico forest, stopping to pluck some sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina<\/em>, used to create blood pressure drugs) off the plant; look at a velvety- leaved plant which cures stomach problems; identify annatto (Bixa orellena<\/em>), richest source of vitamin E. He rattles off Latin names like they are actresses\u2019 names or stock market darlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripathi, a bank worker turned agricultural entrepreneur and Bastar boy born and raised, has turned a cottage industry with one farm into a 10 acre, Rs 40-crore-a-year (Rs 10 crore domestic) herbal empire in Kondagaon district: the aptly named Maa Danteshwari Herbal Products (MDHP), extending as far as Ethiopia, Gulf countries and the Netherlands. (The Tribal nature goddess Danteshwari is worshipped in the area.) Functioning as a collective, MDHP employs 300 Tribal families and works with around 22,000 farmers over 1,000 acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all began with a rare variety of safed musli (Chlorophytum borivilianum)<\/em>, a herb with lanceolate leaves found in natural forests from east Assam to Gujarat and abundant here, its roots used medicinally as a source of virility (through the saponins and alkaloids they contain), setting him on a path of 17 years of \u201corganic herbal medicinal and aromatic farming\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biodiversity of this place is so great, endangered species thrive here. There are 60 varieties of safed musli<\/em>, of which one endangered species grows here [MDB-13 and 14]. I only work with this one,\u201d says the entrepreneur, who has taken bare land back into the folds of the jungle. \u201cI got organic certification from Germany, and Japanese agriculture [authorities] gave me certification that Ecocert [an inspection and certification body established in France in 1991] was not providing at that time.\u201d The products rely on natural pest controls like neem<\/em> and spiders, and feature \u2018gold\u2019 varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning the Royal Bank of Scotland Earth Hero Award in 2012 and various national prizes such as the Desh Seva Ratna Award, Tripathi has been honoured by former President Abdul Kalam and has met the BJP\u2019s LK Advani and Rajnath Singh, his self-devised PR package proclaims. Trained in natural ingredients in Rotterdam and invited to speak at nature expos in Dubai, participating in herbal trade conferences everywhere from Jhansi to Japan, this single-minded businessman farmer is constantly at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials and local media in Chhattisgarh\u2019s capital Raipur applaud Tripathi\u2019s industry not just on its own merit, but because it offers an option to Tribals trapped in India\u2019s so-called \u2018red corridor\u2019, even if they are critical of his PR. For, not much has changed in the way of infrastructure for Tribals in the last decade or so; rampant Naxalite guerilla warfare gathers many of the disaffected into its grip, seeking control of their lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBastar has historically been an under- served area in terms of health services. Kondagaon district contains some of the most remote and forested areas in the district,\u201d says Sulakshana Nandi, a healthcare worker of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian circle of the People\u2019s Health Movement (a worldwide movement for health and equitable development), who has worked for 12 years in this area. \u201cPeople are poor and are rapidly losing control of natural resources like forests that they have depended upon for generations. This exacerbates the poor status of health in that area.\u201d Tripathi\u2019s effort is one of the few to bring Tribals together in a sustainable collective asserting their connection to the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNaxalites are the excuse for much that doesn\u2019t happen in Bastar,\u201d he says, speaking to media coverage around violence in this region of about 10,000 sq km. \u2018This is the only sustainable solution for Bastar and other [similar] regions,\u2019 he says in his mission statement. It cites the 6,000 to 7,000 Indian medicinal plants used in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy practices; about 960 species in trade, 178 of them annually consumed in excess of 100 tonnes for an output of about Rs 10,000 crore, exports being upwards of Rs 1,000 crore. (World figures are projected to reach trillions by 2050). Of course, violence is reported daily and there are unexploded bombs people fear discovering, but this doesn\u2019t mean people shouldn\u2019t visit this beautiful part of the world, he opines, hinting at a resort in the works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water flows through Raipur\u2019s plush airport under plexiglass panels, and through Chhattisgarh\u2019s rural lands in the monsoon. Creosote puddles of water, sopping soil, rainbows just out of reach: here is the Bastar of villages, providing produce and profit. Yet it is \u2018Jindal\u2019s army\u2019, the local nickname for the metal men who decorate the airport, that presides over \u2018Credible Chhattisgarh\u2019, the steel state\u2019s hilarious take on the \u2018Incredible India\u2019 campaign. Development is paramount in this 14-year-old state (carved out of Madhya Pradesh) that produces more than 15 per cent of India\u2019s steel and has been setting new benchmarks for rapid development; Tripathi and herbal entrepreneurs like him compete with a variety of concerns as they vie for governmental attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raipur, an aspirational second-tier city of around 200 sq km steadily pumped with the steel wealth that passes through, is the kind of place where you want to read the T-shirt: \u2018When Money Talks You Don\u2019t Listen To Its Accent\u2019, as one local\u2019s says. The city plays a doctored version of the national anthem before movie screenings, featuring local politicians, which everyone stands for. Its local restaurants, often christened \u2018Madrasi\u2019, compete with the usual low-cost fast food outlets, and it has eight frequently- visited malls. A new Hyatt on a promotional rate of Rs 3,000 a room per night has been sold out for two weeks, its management tells us. The state\u2019s roads are neat and traversed in an orderly manner, still smoothly paved as they head into nearby Bhilai, the steel industry hub, or scenic rural parts. Naya Raipur, or New Raipur, lies 17 km away, about 8,000 hectares spread out over 41 villages, planned to house 450,000 residents; India\u2019s fourth planned capital city (after Gujarat\u2019s Gandhinagar, Punjab\u2019s Chandigarh and Odisha\u2019s Bhubaneshwar) with a Rs 2,000 crore budget, according to reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSab chahiye<\/em> [I want everything],\u201d says our driver, who once drove a lorry, now drives a car, and will soon drive a bus, he vows. Second-tier city India is always looking in all directions, as are its architects. Land is the big challenge for them and for Tripathi: he needs more to fully capitalise on expanding demand. So do the state\u2019sTribals, who try to keep pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of seven brothers, Tripathi and his extended family, 40 or so of them, are all farmers. He was a State Bank of India (SBI) probationary officer in 1989, a college professor in the past, he says. \u201cI had lots of jobs. After three years, a promotion was waiting for me at SBI. I was a good officer, there were good career prospects. People said, \u2018People are committing suicide in agriculture and you are joining?\u2019 But when I was at the bank, I saw the economic viability of krishi<\/em> (agriculture). If you take the price of land, you have to classify this as expenses. And if there is debit, there is credit.\u201d He chose the Grameen Bank model and studied 17 conventional crops, showing the results to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Loans resulted, and steady if slow growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, 20 million tonnes of produce is stored in various storage sheds on Tripathi\u2019s 10 farms; his processing unit is 100,000 sq ft. Agriculture Information, an online and print agrarian resource, mentions Tripathi\u2019s work with varieties of lemon grass (MDL-14) and stevia (MDS- 13 and 14) as well, and boasts of Tripathi\u2019s tie-ups with multinational companies. His Ethiopia project is in its first phase: 14,000 acres for high-value herbal farming, with the Lootah group of companies. Tie-ups with American and European companies are in the works, he says. A guestbook is signed by visitors from the US, Japan and other countries, not to mention countless visitors from all over India, usually in large groups; the company provides consultancy services to corporate entities that want to develop high value herbal farms. A tissue culture lab continues his experimental laboratory work; species like Guggul<\/em> (Commifora wightii<\/em>) and Vacha<\/em> (Acorus calamus<\/em>) were commercialised here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were 15 years of mistakes,\u201d says Tripathi, who was born in Kaknar, Jagdalpur, to a family which suffered the misfortunes farmers are vulnerable to. \u201cTribals have one guru with 20 students; I had 20 gurus.\u201d Abundantly educated\u2014 he has earned a BSc and an LLB in corporate law, MAs in Economics, Hindi and History, an Ayurved Ratna from Allahabad, an Ayurved Bhishgacharya from the World Academy of Ayurved (WAA)\u2014he seems endlessly ambitious. His small bedroom, in a humble yet relatively affluent home decorated with Bastar\u2019s ubiquitous wrought iron work, is lined with books. \u201cThose books I have read,\u201d he says, pointing to shelves of academic- looking botanical books in Hindi, \u201cand those I am going to read\u201d\u2014another section of faded covers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was top in everything,\u201d says wife Shipra, who had a \u201clove cum arranged\u201d marriage with the man she met at university. A Tribal of the Kamar community (Gonds are also populous here), she doesn\u2019t call her husband by name, like many here, though her children are studying in Raipur and they have some of the trappings of modernity: computer, phone, rough terrain car. Tripathi is saved as \u2018Father ji\u2019 on her phone. Part of MDHP\u2019s management, Shipra is secretary of Samagra Adivasi Medicinal Plant Development Association (SAMPDA), a green NGO Tripathi founded \u2018for total herbal revolution\u2019, and involved with local women\u2019s groups. Except for her features, her Tribal identity seems vestigial, like with many here; only older women go without sari blouses and bear tattoos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripathi has raised several other commanders in his green army. He says he employs five experts who have studied medicinal plants at the doctorate level or are biotech engineers, 14 marketing experts and 10 managers. When more manpower is needed, all members pitch in to make up a workforce of around 1,000 people. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a fixed salary,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe distribute weekly or monthly honorariums to all our team members, including me, as per our work and responsibilities; from Rs 6,000 to 10,000 monthly. \u2018Employees\u2019 is not a suitable word. We say \u2018associate tribal families\u2019; 1,500 people are getting their livelihood from this farming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dasmati Netam, from Keyoti 10 km away, leads a production team; an ambitious 36-year-old woman, she is head of MDHP\u2019s All Tribal Women groups and President of SAMPDA. Unlike the other Tribals, known for their reticence, she has studied outside the state and speaks up often about her work, taking us home for rice wine. As the apparent leader of her village, she exudes confidence. \u201cI\u2019d like to go outside again,\u201d she says, already seeming to have left its crude wooden fences behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Tripathi\u2019s biggest challenge, aside from the need for more land? \u201cMarketing. In India, until Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir Khan eats these things, people don\u2019t.\u201d Indeed, his main marketing platform is Central Herbal Agro Marketing Federation of India (CHAMF-INDIA); a far cry from Organic India domain. \u201cAnd the next step is backward linkage,\u201d he continues. \u201cOur fight is with middlemen. Now we have negotiation power\u2014ashwamgandha<\/em> , for example, no one will sell less than 100 kg. If they do, we will blacklist them. We have to control the market. If everyone grows safed musli, who will buy it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripathi is set to launch \u2018certified organic food supplements\u2019 in select towns of Chhattisgarh before taking these to other parts of India. He projects sales of Rs 6 crore for these \u2018value-added\u2019 products. His teas and powders may look a little too rustic for the urbane consumer, but they are tasty and seem to find takers among the believers they are aimed at; the sales figure may well be realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With success, however, has come criticism. MDHP\u2019s annual growth rate may be upwards of 14 per cent, but there are rumours of loans that were defaulted on, say sources in Chhattisgarh who feel he is encroaching on \u2018jungle wala zameen<\/em>\u2019 (forest land); Tripathi refutes this, saying he paid the loan off two months ago. Tribals who have farmed for many years can get patta<\/em> (legal registration papers), but he is not one, say others. Yet, Tribals may have found their most viable leader in the bank worker who put his hands to work on the land of his birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his mission statement, Tripathi offers 10 acres for a pilot conservation project across neighbouring states. Will the rumble spread through his jungle? Time may prove harsh, but for now he is effusive. During our walk, he spots a long- tailed bird and we crouch till it takes off, feathers streaming. He asks us to close our eyes for two minutes, and while the gesture is stagey, the sound of green is unadulterated. \u201cTake two deep breaths,\u201d he says, beaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lord of the jungle and the magic potion<\/a><\/blockquote>