From abundance to endangerment to revival, Kachchh’s guggal comes a full circle

Subject : Geography

Section: Economic Geography

Guggal plant:

Guggal (Commiphorawightii), a native plant in Gujarat’s Kachchh district, has high medicinal value. However, its overexploitation has led it to be declared critically endangered by the IUCN.

MithoGuggal (Commiphorastocksiana):

C. stocksiana is found only in the Kachchh region of Gujarat in India and like C. wightii, its oleo gum resin has high medicinal value.
MithoGuggal (Commiphorastocksiana), a species from the same family, mainly found on the Zara-Zumara hills in Kachchh, is also endangered and has high medicinal value, and now awaits similar conservation attention.

A repository of medicinal goodness:

The oleo-gum resin tapped from the stem of C. wightii ( Guggal) and its other counterpart (MithoGuggal) is used to make an Ayurvedic drug that is highly in demand in the herbal industry.
Uses:Antiseptic,anti-inflammatory to reducing blood cholesterol, treating bone fracture, arthritis, rheumatism, skin disorder, urinary problems, and Parkinson’s disease.
- It is also used to glue the stones.
The resin of these plants can be tapped after 7-8 years of plantation. And the plants die once the resin is being tapped.
Critically endangered due to:
- Habitat loss and degradation, unregulated harvesting and tapping of oleo gum resin.

Conservation efforts:

Conservation efforts by researchers and the government went full-swing to save the plant and Local farmers began to grow the guggal—both for economic benefit, as well as for community awareness and involvement in its conservation.
Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (GUIDE) formed a nursery of guggal plants.
The National Medicinal Plants Board and the forest division began a guggal plantation drive in 2018.
A significant move in the conservation of these plant species has been an experiment by the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), Karnataka with GUIDE to develop a tapping technique, such that the plant does not perish after its resin has been tapped.