Hedges with life

Gopakumar AV
To live-in cities and to use fresh herbal drugs, may appear as a pipe dream. Yes, cities have hardly enough space for living itself. Now, it’s more than a dream, and the unique approach of Dr. M.Prasad, a young ayurvedic scientist proves this. The idea is of ‘HEDGIES WITH LIFE’. This is actually an idea of urban hopes. It’s not a new information for those who live in the villages. But, even though seems simple and superficial, this is a very effective method by adapting, which we can assure free availability of medicinal raw materials that can be helpful in many ways.

“Rural life settlements get rapidly transformed to urban areas. The lack of interest in Agro-culture, ignorance about the possibilities of traditional life patterns, attractive earning offers from the cities, modern luxury, all catalyze this phenomenon,” says M.Prasad. And through this project “Hedges with life” the idea “back to Nature” is imbibed.

Non –availability of space is the greatest practical constraint for a city dweller in adopting this. Taking into account of this, hedges are the best choice in between adjacent borders. So any plot can have at least 3 sides of herbal hedges. They are reusable biodegradable and hence eco-friendly, unlike concrete walls.

For the installation of the Herbal Hedge, in the begning, bamboo posts, splints and twigs are needed for creating the basic skeleton of the fence. The only maintenance needed is to make necessary cuttings of the stem at times to prevent over growth, as the plants don’t know the boundaries and their importance like men. And this can be done as leisure.

The most important point is that these hedges immediately become a rich source of herbal raw materials, which will suffice the domestic need of primary health care. The locally available, easy to use preparation made out of common herbs is enough to manage almost all minor health problems. Its not a story of the remote past, that our grand mas played the role of sensible house physicians using these herbs like turmeric, ginger, pepper etc as their tools. By adopting the method of medicinal hedges, we can re introduce that practical tradition back into our lives.

“From my practical experience, I can assure this method a very feasible one,” says Dr. M.Prasad. Dr. Prasad has a well-made herbal hedge around his house in Thrissur, Kerala state. “The list of medicinal plants that can be used for this purpose is very long. It include both bushes and climbers,” adds Dr. Prasad. The commonly used ones include. Adathoda vassica, vitex negundo, Hibiscus rosasinensis, Ixora coccinea, calotropis gigantea, tinospora cordifolia, piper nigrum, Asparagus recemosus, ipomea sepiaria and cissus quadrangularis.

Rich availability of plant materials provides a good source of fresh oxygenated air around the living space. Many plants are said to possess detoxifying effect. For eg. The plant ‘sigru’ (Moringa olefera) is believed to have good purification property apart from its medicinal values. No description is needed in the case of Thulasi (ocimum sanctum). Many medicinal creepers are there which are having beautiful flowers and leaves. So they can be used for ornamental purpose also. Asparagus, gloriosa superba are examples in this regard.

Yes, with a wide spread implementations of this, one can start a new era of green health in our urban lives and also can revitalize a sound health tradition.