Off the Wall

This article appeared on cnn.com.The article was about how pharmaceutical companies exploit the native tribal medicine men for their knowledge of traditional medicine. Kunjira Moolya in south Kanara, a wandering medicine man was approached by German pharmaceutical company, who eventually swindled him of his medicinal recipes for a meager amount of US $ 5 /- (about Rs. 250/-). What's funny is that, a company from Germany half the way across the globe, managed to track down this wandering Kulal in the forest, while we are struggling to find our own people around us....... A point to ponder about........ huh????...

excerpt  from (http://www.cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/asia/magazine/1998/981109/cover5.html)

The biodiversity treaty recognizes that, as custodians of the biosphere, indigenous people should receive some reward if, say, a drug company or an agribusiness firm develops a product based on traditional resources or wisdom. But according to Christoph Then of the Munich-based organization No Patent to Life, pharmaceutical companies rarely pass on a fair share of their profits to the countries that provide the raw genetic material. While many tribesmen are reluctant to share their knowledge with outsiders, some are willing to pass on their secrets for a pittance. Kunjira Moolya, 66, is a landless laborer wandering the misty hills of southern India. He is also a medicine man who, for free, will use the herbs and plants of the rain forest to try to cure snake bites, asthma and epilepsy. Even in his remote hamlet, Moolya was tracked down by researchers from a German pharmaceutical concern, who, according to Indian ecologists, gave him the equivalent of $5 for his medicinal recipes of herbal cures.

This Article appeared on Deccan Herald