Free pass to AYUSH industry a looming threat to India’s biodiversity

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Editor's note: An old ad for Vicco Vajradanti, a decades-old brand of herbal toothpaste and tooth powder, which ran in the 1980s and 1990s, opened to majestic views of waterfalls and forested slopes. The scenes then cut to close-ups of flowers and plants as the voice-over in Hindi went: “Nature’s gifts, so beautiful, so seductive. Nature gives us so much with so much love.” A few shots later, by way of setting up its products as ayurvedic medicines, it added: “Nature has given us many invaluable herbs for good dental health, which ayurveda adopted as medicines.”  While I grew up watching the ad, I hadn’t seen it in a while. Until last week, when it played at regular intervals during an old movie (which seemed to have been recorded off a Doordarshan broadcast). Almost immediately, it seemed an apt opening for the subject I wanted to bring up in my newsletter.  Crucial changes are taking place in India, away from the media and the public. These relate to nature’s gifts that the Vicco ad talks about, the beautiful forests from where they …