Chikkamagaluru: Small rectangle shaped stones mined in the Bababudangiri ranges are passed off as good luck omens and sold for as much as Rs 250 each to gullible tourists, while others are duped into believing plants that have no medicinal value are proven cures for knee pain, hair loss and acidity in tourist hotspots of Chikkamagaluru.
Although the authorities had cracked down on fake ayurvedic practitioners in 2010 by raiding their camps and shops, they have mushroomed once again in the Bababudangiri ranges, Manikyadhara and surrounding areas that are a tourist attraction. Said an expert in medicinal plants and professor at the SDM Ayurveda College in Hassan, Dr Prakash Hegde, “The medicinal plants sold on the roadside are dried up and cannot have any positive effect on the body. In fact they become poisonous.”
Recalling that in the past officials had even seized horns of deers from shops selling fake ayurvedic products in the old market area of Chikkamagaluru, wildlife conservationist, Veeresh , urges the authorities to free the forests of fake ayurvedic practitioners, who indiscriminately chop roots and barks of trees and shrubs, destroying the natural vegetation of the Shola forests.
Deputy Conservator of Forests, Chandranna, when contacted, said that with 62 per cent of the land in and around Bababudangiri being under the control of revenue department, the forest department could take no action in these parts. “Only if this area is declared a conservation reserve by the state government, can we act against these fake ayurvedic practitioners,” he claimed.
