The Chhattisgarh government has taken a giant stride towards formalizing indigenous medicine by enrolling 660 traditional healers into the mainstream of healthcare in the state. This ambitious roadmap was announced by the Forest Minister Shri Kedar Kashyap during a historic Vaidya Sammelan at the Forest School of Mahasamund on July 21, 2026. The event, which was an all India first of its kind of the same size in the district since the state came into existence, was organised by the Mahasamund Forest Division and the Chhattisgarh Adivasi, Swasthya Parampara Evam Aushadhi Padap Board. The ultimate aim is to get the official certification from the Quality Council of India (QCI) of about 20 practitioners in each of the 33 districts in the state, thus giving the ancient knowledge the recognition it deserves.
The conference was a strong platform to launch strong empowerment schemes, directly targeting these local practitioners. The Board chairman, Shri J.A.C.S. Rao, graced the stage and discussed the various proactive actions being taken, which included the development of specialized training programs on cultivation of medicinal plants and non-destructive harvesting methods. He also explained about the scheme, the Healer Herbal Garden, which aims to help traditional doctors secure financial and technical assistance to cultivate commonly used therapeutic plants in their homes. These healers are not only funded for individual homes, but the board is also supporting School Herbal Gardens in the native villages of these healers. The economic disadvantage faced by many, Rao said, led him to provide free pulverizer machines to healer collectives so that they can easily and efficiently crush high-quality herbs without any economic burden.
The discussion of the decades of inherited knowledge in the field of herbs was a very interesting part of the summit. These were open discussions where the practitioners expressed their urgent need for a greater degree of collaboration and cooperation with on-ground forest staff in the process of collecting medicinal plants in the wild. Board Vice-Chairman Shri Anjay Shukla immediately informed the local authorities present about the issue. The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Mahasamund, Shri Mayank Pandey, after receiving the request with high positivity and speed, has assured the healers that the forest division will give their full support and assist them in collection of herbs only after getting the necessary official permission.
Speaking to the huge gathering, Board Chairman Shri Vikas Markam conveyed his sincere thanks to the tribal communities for keeping alive their ancient health practices, age-old food habits, traditional health-care practices and precious knowledge of herbs. He added that the government is committed to making the good of these new schemes available in the farthest parts of the state and said that healing summits would also be held in all the districts to cover all the traditional healers of Chhattisgarh in future.
The historic day started with a solid plantation drive throughout the Forest School campus before heading to the village. Chairman Markam planted a Red Sandalwood sapling, Vice-Chairman Shukla planted a Lakshmi Taru and CEO Rao planted a Reetha sapling in the ground. After the lighting of the lamp, as a formal introduction to the summit, DFO Mayank Pandey warmly welcomed the dignitaries with floral bouquets. In his address Pandey, emphasized that his division was always committed to planting medicinal species in the interior of the forest to ensure their availability for generations to come.
The event was a resounding success, which ended with a formal ceremony during which the participating Vaidyas and the members of the forest management committee got official participation certificates. The event witnessed a massive turnout of Joint DFO Dimpi Bais, Sub-Divisional Forest Officer Shri Govind Singh, Range Officer Shri Siyaram Karmakar and all the Range Officers of the division. They were accompanied by 200 members of Forest Management Committee, a number of forest department and board officials and 50 eminent local Traditional Healers such as Gannu Prabhakar, Himalaya Pradhan, Devnath Nishad, Nikesh Dhruv, Shyam Lal Yadav, Sohanlal Sahu, Dauwa Ram Nishad etc.
