Name : Harshadbhai Patel
District & State : Anand, Gujarat
Category : Herbal products
Award : Appreciation
Award Function : 4th National Grassroots Innovation Awards
Award Year : 2007
Innovation Description
Harshadbhai (40) lives in the village of Bochasan, Anand famous for having the largest temple for Lord Swaminarayan in Gujarat. The village population is around 11,000 people with most of the families having at least some of their relatives residing abroad. An agriculturist by profession Harshadbhai also has some livestock from which he earns around Rs 50,000 per annum. He has his wife and two young sons in his family. Though his four brothers are all graduates, he studied only up to 10th standard. His brothers live separately in the same village with their families.His father Shri Maganbhai Patel was a herbal practitioner and it was mainly because of him that Harshadbhai developed interest in traditional medications from the age of 16 years. Apart from this, he also had interest in making earthen idols, wall paintings and drawing during his leisure, which today he could not pursue due to lack of spare time.Many years ago, large worms affected most of the livestock in his village. Taking guidance from his father he fed the animals with a herb, which resultedin the worms being expelled. This small success went a long way to instill confidence in him about these herbal practices. Presently he administers herbal medications for curing endoparasites, diarrhoea, retention of placenta in animals and curing stomach pain and fungal infestation in humans.Though he works selflessly, yet he has not received much appreciation in the society for providing these herbal medications to their animals. His practices have been sent to College of Veterinary Sciences, Parbhani, Maharashtra for validation. He hopes that if his practices get validated scientifically he may be able to use them commercially and improve his financial status.He participated in the Inventors of India workshop at IIM, Ahmedabad in October 2006 where he suggested that such interaction between the herbal healers should be held more often so that the knowledge acquired by a healer is shared with other fellow healers facilitating its transfer and diffusion and subsequent utilization in the service of the society. He also participated in the Regional Workshop for Herbal Healers at Bhavnagar in December 2006 scientists commented upon the possibility of product development. His herbal formulations were much appreciated by the gathering.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/Traditional_Livestock_Healer/381