Officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), western region, identified the plant as the rare 'Saussurea costus', or 'kuth', which grows only at high altitudes of 8,000-12,000 feet in very cold climate.
With its natural habitat - spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Pakistan and China - constantly shrinking and its wild population almost gone, the Indian government has declared it a threatened plant variety.
Tilottama Verma, chief of the WCCB, which functions under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, said, 'As kuth is now cultivated in a very small area in Himachal, but its demand in ayurveda, the Chinese and Tibetan systems of medicine, is increasing, it is being trafficked across countries.
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