Herbal Garden

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India’s highest Trans-Himalayan Herbal Garden at 3524mtrs (11,562 ft) in Leh is developed and maintained by National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa (NISR)-Leh. It spreads across an area of 210 kanals (10 hectares) and is located at Igoo-Phey (in vicinity of Leh town).The garden has been developed with initial funding under the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB), New Delhi.
The garden’s vision is to cultivate the endangered Trans-Himalayan medicinal plants focusing on in-situ conservation. It aspires to conserve our natural heritage while developing different agro-techniques to mass multiply the rare and endangered species. Training programs (for interested local farmers and entrepreneurs) are also conducted with an aim to pass on this incredible heritage to the future generations.
The garden cultivates and displays around 110 medicinal, aromatic, shrubs and tree species of cold desert region of Ladakh under various growing condition such as: greenhouse, underground trench and open field condition, sourced from some of the highest locations in Ladakh.
Some of the important medicinal plant species cultivated at herbal garden are Podophyllum hexandrum, Saussurea lappa, Rheum species, Inula racemosa, Hippophae rhamnoides, Aconitum heterophyllum, Dactylorhiza hatagirea, Verbascum thapsus, Ephedra geradiana, Arnebia euchroma, Rhodiola sp., Lycium sp. etc.

At herbal garden there are mainly two types of greenhouse available:

1. Single layer polycarbonate greenhouse: there are 4 greenhouses UV stabilized 8 mm polycarbonate sheet with wooden roof slope to north. The wooden door on east wall to avoid wind currents. The specification of the greenhouse is 60*20 ft and these greenhouse are use to cultivate seedlings and cuttings of endangered medicinal plants of cold desert region of Ladakh.
2. Triple layer Polycarbonate greenhouse: there are 2 newly constructed greenhouses with UV stabilized 16 mm triple layer polycarbonate panel facing south direction with GI roof sloped to the north to regulate solar radiation absorption on the inside surface. The polycarbonate door located on the east wall and manually operated ventilators with metallic frameon south facing.

Trench greenhouse is a low cost underground rectangular structure (24×12×2 ft) (L×W×D) in north-south orientation with stone wall on four sides. There are around 24 such structures available at Trans-Himalayan Herbal garden and these structures are used to grow seedlings and cuttings of medicinal plants during winter and summer season.