India has a wealth of traditional knowledge and resources. How shall we protect them from infringement and theft? The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) been able to check the piracy of ancient wisdom related to medicinal plants cost-effectively. Other developing countries whose traditional knowledge (TK) is being plundered want to replicate the idea.TKDL, a collaborative project of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, is situated in Ghaziabad, U.P.Biopiracy, or misappropriation of TK is rampant, not just in India but in a host of countries rich in bioresources across the African and Latin American continents. The TK of 110 developing countries is vulnerable to theft and capture.
This knowledge, found in Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Arabic, Persian and Urdu texts, is inaccessible and incomprehensible to patent examiners overseas, even to many in India. The focus of TKDL was on breaking the language and format barriers by scientifically converting and structuring the available TK in IPC.
TKDL protects about a quarter million Indian formulations culled from our ancient texts. Now it also includes videos of the most common yoga postures. This is a response to the national furore over the increasing number of patents being granted in the West for yoga exercises.
The Hindu : Opinion / Open Page : Safeguarding India’s ancient wisdom
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