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New Delhi : Union Ayush and Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on March 4, 2022, announced a major investment of more than Rs 100 crore to develop the Ayush Healthcare sector in Nagaland. One 30 bed Ayush hospital and three 10 bed hospitals along with one Ayurvedic college will be developed in the state with the allocated funds.

An integrated Ayush Hospital was also inaugurated by the Union Minister at Razha Chedema at Kohima earlier on March 4, 2022. The 30 bed Ayush hospitals will be developed at Kihpire while the 10 bed Ayush hospitals will be developed, one each at Mokokchung, at Nagaland University in Dimapur, and Wokha.

In order to give the higher education in Ayush a fillip in the region, the Union Minister announced setting up of a state-of-the-art Ayurvedic college at Longleng at an estimated cost of Rs  70 crore, according to a PIB release.

Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said, that the Northeast has an immense potential to become the hub in the Ayush sector. He said that with our rich traditional knowledge base in folk medicine and the bounty of flora, we can provide health and wellness solutions for people of India as well as our neighbouring countries. “This will give us economic strength and our community will be blessed with a healing touch to treat human illness,” he added .

The Minister further informed that the Ministry has taken a step towards the development of Ayush with an investment of Rs 172 crore in Nagaland and Mizoram. He said that ten new Ayush hospitals and one Ayurvedic college would be set up in these two states.

Talking about the steps taken to preserve and conserve the folk medicine in the region, the Union Ayush Minister said, “In order to learn and leverage the folk medicine, the Ayush ministry is conducting a multi centric research project to critically appraise and validate Local Health Traditions (LHT), Oral health Traditions (OHT), and Ethno Medicinal Practices (EMP) among ethnic communities of the Northeast.”