Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal ?Nishank?, Health Minister of Uttarakhand and a noted Hindi poet and writer, has been honoured with honourary Doctorate of Science at a function held at Bhandarnaike International Conference Hall in Colombo recently. The Degree has been granted by the Open International University of Colombo, for his outstanding performance on health front in Uttarakhand especially for taking concrete steps to promote Ayurveda. First lady of Sri Lanka Smt Shiranthi Rajapakse presented the degree. Representatives from 99 countries of the world participated in the conference.
Expressing thanks for the degree, Dr Nishank said the people of the world have lost much by going away from the nature. He described health as the supreme wealth for a person and those who are not fit as the most distressed people in the world. He said just opening of new super specialty hospitals is not enough, we have to come closer to the nature and the Ayurveda is the best remedy in this regard.
?The day the common man starts following the principles of Ayurveda, homeopathy, nature care, Unani, Siddha and yoga, most of the health problems of the world will vanish from roots. The World Health Organisation (WHO) too has accepted this fact. My state Uttarakhand praises all those who are propagating the Ayurveda and extends full support. We have declared our state as the herbal state and we are sincerely promoting herbal products. Uttarakhand is the state in India from where Hanuman had brought sanjivani to revive injured Lakshmana in Sri Lanka. When Hanuman could not recognise the sanjivani, he took the whole Dronagiri Mountain to Sri Lanka. I hope, people of Sri Lanka must have been taking benefit of natural herbs from that holy mountain,? he said further adding that the state government is soon going to set up a university to promote herbs. He proposed to organise the next such international conference in Uttarakhand.
